Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by zach

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · Aug 20

wait did I really never post this one

“you wouldn’t download a car” meme format but instead it says “you wouldn’t winter’s night a traveler”

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Jun 20

I think the LLM discourse is a little less “one weird trick” than Superdistribution, but yeah, I’m sure a lot of what people are saying today will look ridiculous in 30 years

1

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Jun 20

Whenever I read books from this era, I’m a little jealous. It must have felt amazing to think software was on the cusp of being solved for good.

1 1

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Jun 19

The software design literature is 98% platitudes and tautologies by volume. So when I say that this book is extremely, thoroughly wrong - I disagree with nearly every premise and conclusion - I hope you can understand how exciting that is. A post is forthcoming.

3 8

Reposted by zach

srrrse @without.boats · Apr 29

Talking about programming is hard because none of us know anything about it, so instead we invent metaphors for programming and talk about those.

1 11 61

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Apr 27

`git arboresce` seems more apropos

4

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 30

2

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 16

becoming-puppet

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 16

honestly, that’s a really solid Deleuze puppet

1 5

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 16

Agreed. There’s a reason the post focuses almost entirely on Martin.

1

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 16

I’ll check it out, thanks. In fairness, in the interviews I found it was Hunt who was talking about the importance of broken windows, so maybe that was his specific contribution.

1 1

Reposted by zach

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 12

I wrote about software maintenance, entropy, and the myth of the broken window: explaining.software/archive/comp...

complexity as entropy

In a random dataset, there are no internal relationships; with each element, our explanation must begin anew.

explaining.software

2 5 20

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 12

I wrote about software maintenance, entropy, and the myth of the broken window: explaining.software/archive/comp...

complexity as entropy

In a random dataset, there are no internal relationships; with each element, our explanation must begin anew.

explaining.software

2 5 20

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Mar 11

spring cleaning

a disassembled keyboard with Topre switches

3 8

Reposted by zach

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Feb 18

Elements of Clojure is now available as a free PDF: elementsofclojure.com

Elements of Clojure

Polanyi calls this "tacit knowledge", a thing which we only understand as part of something else. When we speak, we do not focus on making sounds, we focus on our words. We understand the muscular act of speech, but would struggle to explain it.

elementsofclojure.com

1 23 42

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Feb 21

You can pay for the ebook at leanpub.com/elementsofcl..., if you feel strongly about it. Glad you’re enjoying the book.

Elements of Clojure

An essay on the fundamental elements of software, as seen through the lens of Clojure

leanpub.com

1 2

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Feb 18

Elements of Clojure is now available as a free PDF: elementsofclojure.com

Elements of Clojure

Polanyi calls this "tacit knowledge", a thing which we only understand as part of something else. When we speak, we do not focus on making sounds, we focus on our words. We understand the muscular act of speech, but would struggle to explain it.

elementsofclojure.com

1 23 42

Reposted by zach

sam @stellman.bsky.social · Feb 1

the profiles of contact between a piano's capstan and whippen

5 5

Reposted by zach

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Feb 5

I wrote about the fifty (50) posts that Ron Jeffries has written about solving Sudoku: explaining.software/archive/the-...

the sudoku affair

In 2006, Ron Jeffries wrote a series of posts describing his attempts to build a Sudoku solver. He began by wrapping a class around a simple datatype for the...

explaining.software

2 9 13

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Feb 5

I fully believe that the Agile co-authors were all effective developers in their chosen domain. The problem is their incuriosity about that effectiveness. The more I read of the literature over the past few decades, the more I’m convinced they’ve done real harm to the industry.

1 2

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Feb 5

I wrote about the fifty (50) posts that Ron Jeffries has written about solving Sudoku: explaining.software/archive/the-...

the sudoku affair

In 2006, Ron Jeffries wrote a series of posts describing his attempts to build a Sudoku solver. He began by wrapping a class around a simple datatype for the...

explaining.software

2 9 13

Reposted by zach

Apropos Cast @aproposclojure.bsky.social · Jan 28

Today on Apropos, 2pm EST, we'll have @ztellman.ideolalia.com in the hot seat. Tune in to watch and chat live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wN-...

Apropos Clojure 2025-01-28

YouTube video by apropos clojure

www.youtube.com

2 3

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Jan 25

everyone who buys a mattress is a mattress collector, constantly on the lookout for their next acquisition

1 8

Reposted by zach

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Jan 15

I wrote about why the best software resembles trashy genre fiction: explaining.software/archive/stat...

state and trace

When we say fiction belongs to a genre, we mean that it builds upon familiar themes and structures. By assigning a genre — a slasher flick, or a comedy of...

explaining.software

2 3

zach @ztellman.ideolalia.com · Jan 15

I wrote about why the best software resembles trashy genre fiction: explaining.software/archive/stat...

state and trace

When we say fiction belongs to a genre, we mean that it builds upon familiar themes and structures. By assigning a genre — a slasher flick, or a comedy of...

explaining.software

2 3