ClojureTV
9 HN recommenders · recommended in 13 months, 2014–2024
58:39 · 48K views · Jan 8, 2014
Tim Ewald's Clojure/conj talk uses furniture making with hand tools versus machine tools as an allegory for software. It explores how automation changes what we make and how we think about our work, and why Clojure's small set of simple tools matters.
HN repeatedly names it among the best programming talks, loved for its craftsmanship message that complex tooling can hide simpler solutions.
15 comments from Hacker News
I gotta throw in one of my favorites, because I have not seen another that really speaks so directly to the value of craftsmanship in development. I also deeply enjoyed the allegory with woodworking tools. this video
Must-see presentation (~1hour) for anyone interested in this topic is "Programming With Hand Tools" by Tim Ewald: this video
Good article! Two things popped into my head when reading it. First the talk "Programming with Hand Tools" by Tim Edwald[0]. It's a very cool, entertaining talk with emphasis on the craftsmanship side of things and provokes thinking about which parts to automate (or maybe abstract away) and which parts to craft by hand when we're building stuff. Aside: also reminds me of Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero project [1]. He is a strong advocate for structuring things bottom up and building them ourselves. [0] this video [1] [LINK] --- Secondly when reading this: > Regardless, the basic idea is that companies are often faced with the decision of doing N units of shitty work or far fewer than N units of great work. This is obviously oversimplified, but there is an important point that wants to emerge from this line of thought. As someone who grew up on open source, standardized technologies and the Web, I have been empowered to build a livelihood on Web development, mostly "self-taught" (or rather self-directed). All of this Web stuff is very accessible and gives you actual _leverage_. You can build something useful very quickly and the community around it is happy to share so much knowledge and work. I'm _very_ thankful for that. But I think as the wider web development community we're losing sight of what that essence is. We started to think of the Web as merely a vehicle for pure scale as in "how to reach the most people and annoy them with notifications" and "how to produce cheap sof
Time Ewald makes a case for "Programming with Hand Tools" in this talk he gave at Clojure/conj 2013. He too makes a connection with wood working. this video Summary: For most of human history, furniture was built by hand using a small set of simple tools. This approach connects you in a profoundly direct way to the work, your effort to the result. This changed with the rise of machine tools, which made production more efficient but also altered what's made and how we think about making it in in a profound way. This talk explores the effects of automation on our work, which is as relevant to software as it is to furniture, especially now that once again, with Clojure, we are building things using a small set of simple tools.
I also think it seems pretty appealing. There have been some interesting things on HN over the years about it. I loved this talk about how the tools you use determine how you look at problems (Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools) this video And if you haven't seen him before, you're about to fall in love with Matthias Wandel: [LINK] [LINK]