Ask HN: Best talks of 2018?

Post by owl57 » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 2:00 AM UTC

gnuvince wrote: post #134

maxhallinan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this was one of the notably bad talks this year. The whole premise that a function of Maybe a should be a function of a without an API change is neither intuitive to me nor really justified by Hickey. Different things are different. It's sad to see someone build such a wall around himself when faced by something (type theory) that he doesn't understand.

The sad thing is that Rich Hickey had some very good videos when Clojure was a new thing back in 2008–2009. Unfortunately, I've disagreed vehemently with most of his talks since then. In this case, it's completely illogical that a function `Maybe a -> b` should be callable as if it were a function `a -> b`. Do you want to know how I know? Because it would be just as illogical to allow a function `Vec a -> b` to be ca…

Post by acobster » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 2:26 AM UTC

rrherr wrote: post #71

acobster wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I was at Deconstruct too, and Nabil's talk got a standing ovation. It ran way over time, and I didn't notice. Tech people need to hear this. Tom's talk is also amazing in its own right. Let's Program a Banjo Grammar was also one of my favorites. :D https://www.deconstructconf.com/2018/ryan-herr-lets-program-... Edit: I just looked at your username...that you, Ryan? :)

Yep, that was me — thank you for the kind words! Gary Bernhardt had a creative concept for selecting speakers. Half were invited, internet famous people like Tom 7 and Julia Evans. Half were people who'd never spoke at a conference before, like Nabil and I. For the call for proposals, we submitted 2 minute videos instead of abstracts. Gary invested a lot of time mentoring the new speakers, which I'm so grateful for!…

Post by Aeolun » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 2:47 AM UTC

krispbyte wrote: post #84

vishnu_ks wrote: post #73

Alex Hannold's Ted Talk on how he free soloed El Cap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iM6M_7wBMc Another favorite one of mine was Jimmy Chin talking about how they shot Free Solo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq_vvnxZ6I0

To other people not getting what free solo is, it means climbing a cliff without ropes.

Post by kangaroodingo » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 3:04 AM UTC

aeleos wrote: post #81

Recent but great talk posted here, What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System [1] by Prof. Michael Levin. He talks about how long term low energy electrical networks between all cells in living organisms shape how the organism grows. I think what he talks about will be the future of medicine as it allows for an amazing degree of high level control over how animals grow. 1. https://www…

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 3:53 AM UTC