(next Rich) • Hacker News Board

Re: (next Rich)

#41

Post by cutler » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:14 PM UTC

draw_down wrote: post #2

I wonder if he’ll still give talks. I don’t blame him if not, but he’s really good at it. “Simple made easy” was a classic even if everyone proceeded to ignore the practical advice contained therein. And “Maybe not” is my personal favorite, a great discussion of requirements/provisions and the downsides of option types.

I'll never forget "gem install hairball" during his talk "Simplicity Matters" at Ruby Conf 2012 where he basically told the Ruby community they were doing it wrong.

Re: (next Rich)

#42

Post by fnord77 » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:18 PM UTC

we used clojure on a pretty big project. We made the decision to rewrite in java after it became clear that some fairly big libraries we were using weren't being maintained.

It was contentious, but I'm glad we dumped clojure.

No matter how good a project is, it needs loads of support behind it

Re: (next Rich)

#43

Post by pluijzer » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

waffletower wrote: post #40

neoncontrails wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience was similar. I've built far more impactful things since then, but at the end of the day, the software that I'm most proud of was a calculator, of all things, that I made in Clojurescript. It was loosely based on the final chapter of SICP, and implemented an hilariously metacircular approach to transitioning the state of the register machine. Since the implementation was way more interesting than the act…

I pushed another build of a Clojure service into production a few minutes ago. There are companies that use it as a primary language you know :)

Second that and just to add, working fulltime with Clojure, apart from all the features and practical aspect is, really enjoyable.

Re: (next Rich)

#44

Post by runevault » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:24 PM UTC

I remember being curious about Lisp and then seeing a new Lisp-style language was coming out for the JVM. I think back in the 0.2 days (unless I'm confusing versions with Phoenix but I feel like I started using both at that version number).

I didn't end up sticking with Clojure because I don't enjoy the JVM tools/ecosystem, but Rich's talks gave me a lot to think about and I've been spending time in more FP and FP adjacent languages like Common Lisp and F# because of his thoughts and ideas.

Thanks for everything and enjoy your retirement from professional development!

Re: (next Rich)

#45

Post by yawaramin » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:24 PM UTC

I remember Rich talking about how much time and money he put into Clojure–some of that money taken out of his retirement funds! I hope he has a long and fulfilling retirement with lots of happiness.

Re: (next Rich)

#46

Post by culi » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:25 PM UTC

jonahbenton wrote: post #16

The word congratulations came into English from Latin, where it was formed by combining prefix com-, meaning with, to gratulari, meaning "give thanks" or "show joy." Gratulari is derived from gratus, as is gratitude. Gratus means "pleasing," "thankful." Having only had the good fortune to meet you in person a few times: Congratulations, Rich. You have my deepest gratitude. It fills me with great joy to know you are t…

thanks for the lesson etymonline

Re: (next Rich)

#47

Post by typon » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

Watching Rich Hickey's talks turned me from a "software is a grind" kind of a guy into a "software can be beautiful". Highly recommend watching every single one of his talks if you are a young programmer. It doesn't matter if you end up using Clojure or not - his philosophies and enthusiasm are infectious.

Re: (next Rich)

#48

Post by datadeft » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

Clojure was hugely inspirational to me and I could finally enjoy programming (focusing on algorithms). Rich has many great ideas, the database as a value is my all time favorite from him.

Re: (next Rich)

#49

Post by braza » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:30 PM UTC

For whom is interested in some of the Rich's talks, this is a great compilation[1].

[1] - https://changelog.com/posts/rich-hickeys-greatest-hits

Re: (next Rich)

#50

Post by cwilper » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 4:33 PM UTC

draw_down wrote: post #2

I wonder if he’ll still give talks. I don’t blame him if not, but he’s really good at it. “Simple made easy” was a classic even if everyone proceeded to ignore the practical advice contained therein. And “Maybe not” is my personal favorite, a great discussion of requirements/provisions and the downsides of option types.

Yep, the guy has a gift. I've never touched a line of Clojure or looked at Datomic, but I'm repeatedly inspired by Rich's talks, which I come back to often.