Glen Chiacchieri has worked at the MIT Media Lab on Scratch, at Dynamicland with Bret Victor, and is now becoming a psychotherapist. He's known for his Legible Mathematics essay, his Flowsheets programming prototypes, and the Laser Socks game, among many other projects.

In this conversation, we discuss:
how he grounds his research in compassion,
the tradeoffs between working on the "model vs UI" of programming,
his software-company-in-the-making, based on Flowsheets,
our shared dream for the future of open-source READMEs,
and how Dynamicland does and does not point towards the future.

The notes for this conversation can be found at futureofcoding.org/episodes/26.

Glen Chiacchieri has worked at the MIT Media Lab on Scratch, at Dynamicland with Bret Victor, and is now becoming a psychotherapist. He's known for his Legible Mathematics essay, his Flowsheets programming prototypes, and the Laser Socks game, among many other projects.
In this conversation, we discuss:
<ul>
<li>how he grounds his research in compassion,</li>
<li>the tradeoffs between working on the "model vs UI" of programming,</li>
<li>his software-company-in-the-making, based on Flowsheets,</li>
<li>our shared dream for the future of open-source READMEs,</li>
<li>and how Dynamicland does and does not point towards the future.</li>
</ul>
The notes for this conversation can be found at <a href="futureofcoding.org/episodes/26">futureofcoding.org/episodes/26</a>.

Playful explorations of the rich past and exciting future that we're all building with our silly little computers. Hosted by Jimmy Miller and Ivan Reese.

Playful explorations of the rich past and exciting future that we're all building with our silly little computers. Hosted by Jimmy Miller and Ivan Reese.

Future of Coding

Compassion & Programming: Glen Chiacchieri

Inventing on Principle
Stop Drawing Dead Fish
The Future of Programming

Yes, all three of them in one episode. Phew!

Links

$ patreon.com/futureofcoding — Lu and Jimmy recorded an episode about Hest without telling me, and by total coincidence released it on my birthday. Those jerks… make me so happy.
Lu's talk at SPLASH 2023: Cellpond: Spatial Programming Without Escape
Gary Bernhardt's talk Wat
Inventing on Principle by Bret Victor ("""Clean""" Audio)
Braid, the good video game from the creator of The Witness
David Hellman is the visual artist behind Braid, A Lesson Is Learned but the Damage Is Irreversible, Dynamicland, and… the Braid section of Inventing on Principle.
Light Table by Chris Granger
Learnable Programming by Bret Victor
When Lu says "It's The Line", they're referring to this thing they're working on called Seet (or "see it"), and you can sneak a peek at seet right heet.
Paris Fashion Week absolutely struts, and so can you!
The Canadian Tuxedo. As the representative of Canada, I can confirm that I own both a denim jacket and denim pants. If you see me at a conference wearing this combo, I will give you a hug.
Jimmy runs a personal Lichess data lake.
Hot Module Replacement is a good thing.
Pygmalion has a lot of juicy silly bits, 'parently.
Cuttle is awesome! It's a worthy successor to Apparatus. Toby Schachman, Forrest Oliphant, I think maybe a few other folks too? Crushing it. Oh, and don't miss Toby's episode of this very podcast!
Recursive Drawing, another Toby Schachman joint.
Screens in Screens in Screens, another Lu Wilson joint.
Larry Tesler. Not a fan of modes.
Lu writes about No Ideas on their blog, which is actually just a wiki, but it's actually a blog, but it's actually just a garden.
When we mention Rich Hickey, we're referring to the talk Simple Made Easy
Jacob Collier, ugh.
Suffragettes, women advocating for their right to vote, absolutely had a principle. Not sure that we should be directly likening their struggle to what we do in tech. On the other hand, it's good to foster positive movements, to resist incel and other hateful ones.
Instead of linking to e/ anything, I'm just gonna link to BLTC for reasons that only make sense to longtime listeners.
Stop Writing Dead Programs by Jack Rusher. Jack Rusher? Jack Rusher!
It's the fish one, the one with the fish. …Sorry, these aren't actually fish, or something, because they're just drawings.
René Magritte is the creator behind La Trahison des Images, origin of "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". Or maybe it was Margit the Fell Omen?
Magritte's Words and Images are lovely. Here's an English translation, though its worth taking a look at the original in context.
Acousmatic Music
Lu has made art with behaviour — various sands, and CellPond, say.
Barnaby Dixon? Barnaby Dixon. Barnaby Dixon! Barnaby Dixon!!
You can listen to part of Ivan's """Metronome""", if you want. Or you can listen to an early version of the song he's using this metronome to write. Or you can hear snippets of it in the Torn Leaf Zero video (especially the ending). But, like, you could also go make yourself lunch. I recommend mixing up a spicy peanut sauce for your roasted carrots. Shred a bit of cheese, tomato. Toast the bread. Pull the sausages right when the oil starts to spit. Put them straight into the compost. Look at the bottom of the compost bucket. What's down there? It's shiny. Why are you reading this? Why am I writing this? Why do we make thispodcast?
Wintergatan — Marble Machine exists
Oh, I forgot to add a link to Arroost earlier. You can also watch a pretty good video that is basically an Arroost tutorial, not much to it. There are also some nice examples of things people have made with Arroost.
The Rain Room looks pretty cool. It's the exact inverse of how rain works in many video games. YOU MUST PLAY RAIN WORLD.
Here's a beautiful demo of a microtonal guitar, and speaking of using complex machines to make music that would be "easier" to make with a computer, here's a microtonal guitar with mechanized frets that can change the tuning dynamically. This entire YT channel is gold.
Shane Crowley wrote a lovely blog post about creating music with Arroost.
blank.page is a fun experiment in writing with various frictions.
Super Meat Boy (the successor to Meat Boy, a Flash game) and Celeste are great examples of communicating tacit knowledge through the design of a simulation.
Newgrounds and eBaum's World and Homestar Runner were early examples of (arguably) computer-native media.
Hey, here's this episode's requisite link to the T2 Tile Project and Robust-First Computing. I should probably just create a hard-coded section of the episode page template linking to T2, The Witness, and Jack Rusher.
The pun-proof Ivan Sutherland made Sketchpad. Planner exists.
The PlayStation 3 Cell processor was this weirdly parallel CPU that was a pain in the butt to program.
The SpaceMouse

Put all metal back into the ground.

Music featured in this episode:
Fingers from This Score is Butt Ugly
The Sailor's Chorus from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

! Send us email, share your ideas in the Slack, and catch us at these normal places:
Ivan: Mastodon • Website
Jimmy: Mastodon • Website
Lu: Mastodon • Website

See you in the future!

https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/71

<a href="https://vimeo.com/906418692">Inventing on Principle</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/64895205">Stop Drawing Dead Fish</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/71278954">The Future of Programming</a>
Yes, all three of them in one episode. Phew!
Links
$ <a href="https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding">patreon.com/futureofcoding</a> — Lu and Jimmy recorded an episode about Hest without telling me, and by total coincidence released it on my birthday. Those jerks… make me so happy.
<ul>
<li>Lu's talk at SPLASH 2023: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQgxFuw8f1U">Cellpond: Spatial Programming Without Escape</a></li>
<li>Gary Bernhardt's talk <a href="https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat">Wat</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGYGl_xxfXA">Inventing on Principle by Bret Victor ("""Clean""" Audio)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(video_game)">Braid</a>, the good video game from the creator of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZokQov_aH0">The Witness</a></li>
<li><a href="file:///Applications/iA%20Writer.app/Contents/Resources/Templates/Sans.iatemplate/Contents/Resources/davidhellman.net">David Hellman</a> is the visual artist behind <a href="http://braid-game.com/">Braid</a>, <a href="http://www.alessonislearned.com/">A Lesson Is Learned but the Damage Is Irreversible</a>, <a href="https://dynamicland.org/">Dynamicland</a>, and… the Braid section of Inventing on Principle.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ibdknox/light-table">Light Table</a> by <a href="https://chris-granger.com/resume/">Chris Granger</a></li>
<li><a href="https://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/">Learnable Programming</a> by Bret Victor</li>
<li>When Lu says "It's The Line", they're referring to this thing they're working on called Seet (or "see it"), and you can <a href="https://github.com/TodePond/TodePondDotCom/blob/main/lab/readme.md">sneak</a> a peek at seet right <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/see-it/prior-art/">heet</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Fashion_Week">Paris Fashion Week</a> absolutely struts, and so can you!</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_jacket#Canadian_tuxedo">Canadian Tuxedo</a>. As the representative of Canada, I can confirm that I own both a denim jacket and denim pants. If you see me at a conference wearing this combo, I will give you a hug.</li>
<li>Jimmy runs a personal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichess">Lichess</a> data lake.</li>
<li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24581873/what-exactly-is-hot-module-replacement-in-webpack">Hot Module Replacement</a> is a good thing.</li>
<li><a href="https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-pygmalion-1975/">Pygmalion</a> has a lot of juicy silly bits, 'parently.</li>
<li><a href="http://cuttle.xyz/">Cuttle</a> is awesome! It's a worthy successor to <a href="http://aprt.us/">Apparatus</a>. <a href="http://tobyschachman.com/">Toby Schachman</a>, <a href="https://www.forresto.com/">Forrest Oliphant</a>, I think maybe a few other folks too? Crushing it. Oh, and don't miss <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/051">Toby's episode</a> of this very podcast!</li>
<li><a href="http://recursivedrawing.com/">Recursive Drawing</a>, another Toby Schachman joint.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE">Screens in Screens in Screens</a>, another Lu Wilson joint.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Tesler">Larry Tesler</a>. Not a fan of modes.</li>
<li>Lu writes about <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/my-wikiblogarden/no-more-ideas/">No Ideas</a> on their <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">blog</a>, which is actually just a <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">wiki</a>, but it's actually a <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">blog</a>, but it's actually just a <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/">garden</a>.</li>
<li>When we mention <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Hickey">Rich Hickey</a>, we're referring to the talk <a href="https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/">Simple Made Easy</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Collier">Jacob Collier</a>, ugh.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette">Suffragettes</a>, women advocating for their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage">right to vote</a>, absolutely had a principle. Not sure that we should be directly likening their struggle to what we do in tech. On the other hand, it's good to foster positive movements, to resist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel">incel</a> and other hateful ones.</li>
<li>Instead of linking to e/ anything, I'm just gonna link to <a href="https://www.bltc.com/">BLTC</a> for reasons that only make sense to longtime listeners.</li>
<li><a href="https://jackrusher.com/strange-loop-2022/">Stop Writing Dead Programs</a> by <a href="https://jackrusher.com/">Jack Rusher</a>. <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/041">Jack Rusher</a>? <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069">Jack Rusher</a>!</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMklf0vUl18">It's the fish one, the one with the fish. …Sorry, these aren't actually fish, or something, because they're just drawings.</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte">René Magritte</a> is the creator behind <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images">La Trahison des Images</a>, origin of "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". Or maybe it was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9MQe7tR5xQ">Margit the Fell Omen</a>?</li>
<li>Magritte's <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58451673/f38.item.r=les">Words and Images</a> are lovely. Here's an <a href="http://www.philosophical-investigations.org/2017/12/representing-reality-magritte-on-words.html">English translation</a>, though its worth taking a look at the original in context.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acousmatic_music">Acousmatic Music</a></li>
<li>Lu has made art with behaviour — various <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y">sands</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU">CellPond</a>, say.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/barnabydixon">Barnaby Dixon? Barnaby Dixon. Barnaby Dixon! Barnaby Dixon!!</a></li>
<li>You can listen to part of Ivan's <a href="https://raised-sixth.surge.sh/">"""Metronome"""</a>, if you want. Or you can listen to an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoP1bg1GQTM">early version</a> of the song he's using this metronome to write. Or you can hear snippets of it in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FgAHiI3ZNY">Torn Leaf Zero video</a> (especially the ending). But, like, you could also go make yourself lunch. I recommend mixing up a spicy peanut sauce for your roasted carrots. Shred a bit of cheese, tomato. Toast the bread. Pull the sausages right when the oil starts to spit. Put them straight into the compost. Look at the bottom of the compost bucket. What's down there? It's shiny. Why are you reading this? Why am I writing this? Why do we make thispodcast?</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q">Wintergatan — Marble Machine</a> exists</li>
<li>Oh, I forgot to add a link to <a href="https://arroost.com/">Arroost</a> earlier. You can also watch a pretty good video that is basically an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNBKdU6XrLY">Arroost tutorial</a>, not much to it. There are also some nice examples of <a href="https://www.todepond.com/wikiblogarden/arroost/examples/">things people have made with Arroost</a>.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Room">Rain Room</a> looks <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkvazIZx-F0">pretty cool</a>. It's the exact inverse of <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23890979/starfield-rain-effects-how-its-made">how rain works in many video games</a>. YOU MUST PLAY <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0L-JzJhZbM">RAIN WORLD</a>.</li>
<li>Here's a <a href="https://youtu.be/iRsSjh5TTqI?feature=shared&amp;t=188">beautiful demo of a microtonal guitar</a>, and speaking of using complex machines to make music that would be "easier" to make with a computer, here's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbbyikFthEc">microtonal guitar with mechanized frets that can change the tuning dynamically</a>. This entire YT channel is gold.</li>
<li>Shane Crowley wrote <a href="https://edibotopic.com/blog/doing/leisure-sick/">a lovely blog post</a> about creating music with Arroost.</li>
<li><a href="https://blank.page/">blank.page</a> is a fun experiment in writing with various frictions.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Meat_Boy">Super Meat Boy</a> (the successor to Meat Boy, a Flash game) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeste_(video_game)">Celeste</a> are great examples of communicating tacit knowledge through the design of a simulation.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrounds">Newgrounds</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBaum%27s_World">eBaum's World</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestar_Runner">Homestar Runner</a> were early examples of (arguably) computer-native media.</li>
<li>Hey, here's this episode's requisite link to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@T2TileProject">T2 Tile Project</a> and <a href="https://www.andrewwalpole.com/blog/an-introduction-to-robust-first-computation/">Robust-First Computing</a>. I should probably just create a hard-coded section of the episode page template linking to T2, The Witness, and Jack Rusher.</li>
<li>The pun-proof <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Sutherland">Ivan Sutherland</a> made <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad">Sketchpad</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planner_(programming_language)">Planner</a> exists.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Technical_specifications">PlayStation 3 Cell processor</a> was this weirdly parallel CPU that was a pain in the butt to program.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://3dconnexion.com/ca/spacemouse/">SpaceMouse</a></li>
</ul>
Put all metal back into the ground.
Music featured in this episode:
<ul>
<li>Fingers from <a href="https://ivanish.ca/this-score-is-butt-ugly/">This Score is Butt Ugly</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE1NyYT31Tw">The Sailor's Chorus</a> from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.</li>
</ul>
! Send us <a href="mailto:admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener">email</a>, share your ideas in the <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/community">Slack</a>, and catch us at these normal places:
<ul>
<li>Ivan: <a href="https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://ivanish.ca/">Website</a></li>
<li>Jimmy: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/">Website</a></li>
<li>Lu: <a href="https://mas.to/@TodePond">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.todepond.com/">Website</a></li>
</ul>
See you in the future!
<a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/71">https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/71</a>

Elephant in the Room

Dave Ackley's paper Beyond Efficiency is three pages long. With just these three pages, he mounts a compelling argument against the conventional way we engineer software. Instead of inflexibly insisting upon correctness, maybe allow a lil slop? Instead of chasing peak performance with cache and clever tricks, maybe measure many times before you cut. So in this episode, we're putting every CEO in the guillotine… (oh, that stands for "correctness and efficiency only", don't put us on a list)… and considering when, where, and how to do the robust thing.

Links

$ patreon.com/futureofcoding — The most recent bonus episode is a discussion with Stefan Lesser about new "laws of physics" we can invent inside the computer.

Don't destroy the earth, then make sure your thing can't be destroyed, then don't destroy your data, and finally, do your damn job, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
A Software Epiphany, and the accompanying HN discussion — giga viral, so sick
PartyKit? Nice!
What started as a simple todo list turned into an ocean of tech boy milk and, ultimately, the AI apocalypse.
Jepsen is a rough, rugged, deeply thoughtful and fantastically cool approach to distributed systems testing, by Kyle Kingsbury. Also, we didn't talk about it, but his reversing / hexing / typing / rewriting / unifying technical interview series is essential reading.
Ivan's examples of robustness vs efficiency were RAID, the CAP theorem, Automerge, the engineering of FoundationDB, and Byzantine fault tolerance— all of which stake out interesting territory in the efficiency/robustness tradeoff spectrum, all of which are about distributed systems.
Can programming be liberated from the von Neumann style?, a paper by John Backus.
We Don't Really Know How to Compute!, a talk by Gerald Sussman.
The Robust-First Computing Creed is rock solid.
The Wikipedia article on von Neumann architecture did not come through with the goods.
Ivan works with Alex Warth now, and thus may fairly speak in half-truths like "I've been working with constraints recently…"
The Demon Hoard Sort
Bogosort is never coming to Dreamberd
The Witness was made by Jonathan Blow, who has Aphantasia, but he also made a game called Braid, and Braid is good.
Datamosh is a creative misuse of the lack of robustness that comes from storing diffs instead of full state snapshots. Here's a lovely gallery of examples.
Abstraction by xkcd
Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
Can't let Lu get through the above without derailing onto Fiverr, PCP, Fight Club, and the Dust Brothers.
Randy Newman was nearly quoted in Ackley's Indefinite Scalability for Living Computation — god help you if you read our show notes and don't listen to the episode.
"It is difficult", says Upton Sinclair when asked about Jimmy Miller being Jimmy Miller, and how we all ought to approach our own sense of Jimmy Miller.

Music featured in this episode:
Hawker News by user: spiralganglion
Corporate World by the Dust Brothers

No more jokes! Find us at these normal places:
Ivan: Mastodon • Website
Jimmy: Mastodon • Website
Lu: Mastodon • Website
Dave: Mastodon • Website

Send us email, share your ideas in our Slack, and support the show on Patreon. Yes, do all three please.

http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/70

<a href="https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/">Dave Ackley</a>'s paper <a href="https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/be-201301131528.pdf">Beyond Efficiency</a> is three pages long. With just these three pages, he mounts a compelling argument against the conventional way we engineer software. Instead of inflexibly insisting upon correctness, maybe allow a lil slop? Instead of chasing peak performance with cache and clever tricks, maybe measure many times before you cut. So in this episode, we're putting every CEO in the guillotine… (oh, that stands for "correctness and efficiency only", don't put us on a list)… and considering when, where, and how to do the robust thing.
Links
$ <a href="https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding">patreon.com/futureofcoding</a> — The most recent bonus episode is a discussion with Stefan Lesser about new "laws of physics" we can invent inside the computer.
Don't destroy the earth, then make sure your thing can't be destroyed, then don't destroy your data, and finally, do your damn job, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://johnwhiles.com/posts/programming-as-theory">A Software Epiphany</a>, and the accompanying <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38324486">HN discussion</a> — giga viral, so sick</li>
<li><a href="https://www.partykit.io/">PartyKit</a>? Nice!</li>
<li>What started as a <a href="https://mastodon.social/@TodePond@mas.to/111402970410628418">simple todo list</a> turned into an <a href="https://twitter.com/tldraw/status/1724892287304646868">ocean of tech boy milk</a> and, ultimately, the <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38309611">AI apocalypse</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://jepsen.io/">Jepsen</a> is a rough, rugged, deeply thoughtful and fantastically cool approach to distributed systems testing, by <a href="https://aphyr.com/">Kyle Kingsbury</a>. Also, we didn't talk about it, but his <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical-interview">reversing</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/341-hexing-the-technical-interview">hexing</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/342-typing-the-technical-interview">typing</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/353-rewriting-the-technical-interview">rewriting</a> / <a href="https://aphyr.com/posts/354-unifying-the-technical-interview">unifying</a> technical interview series is essential reading.</li>
<li>Ivan's examples of robustness vs efficiency were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID">RAID</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem">CAP theorem</a>, <a href="https://automerge.org/">Automerge</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fFDFbi3toc">the engineering of FoundationDB</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault">Byzantine fault tolerance</a>— all of which stake out interesting territory in the efficiency/robustness tradeoff spectrum, all of which are about distributed systems.</li>
<li><a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/359576.359579">Can programming be liberated from the von Neumann style?</a>, a paper by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus">John Backus</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5TrK7A4pI">We Don't Really Know How to Compute!</a>, a talk by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman">Gerald Sussman</a>.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://andrewwalpole.com/blog/an-introduction-to-robust-first-computation/">Robust-First Computing Creed</a> is rock solid.</li>
<li>The Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture">von Neumann architecture</a> did not come through with the goods.</li>
<li>Ivan works with <a href="https://alexwarth.github.io/">Alex Warth</a> now, and thus may fairly speak in half-truths like "I've been working with constraints recently…"</li>
<li>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=helScS3coAE">Demon Hoard Sort</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogosort">Bogosort</a> is never coming to <a href="https://github.com/TodePond/DreamBerd">Dreamberd</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game)">The Witness</a> was made by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow">Jonathan Blow</a>, who has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia">Aphantasia</a>, but he also made a game called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(video_game)">Braid</a>, and Braid is good.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_artifact#Artistic_use">Datamosh</a> is a creative misuse of the lack of robustness that comes from storing diffs instead of full state snapshots. Here's a <a href="https://eyecannndy.com/technique/glitch#datamosh">lovely gallery</a> of examples.</li>
<li><a href="https://xkcd.com/676/">Abstraction</a> by xkcd</li>
<li><a href="https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/">Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine</a></li>
<li>Can't let Lu get through the above without derailing onto <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiverr">Fiverr</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phencyclidine">PCP</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club">Fight Club</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Brothers">Dust Brothers</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Newman">Randy Newman</a> was nearly quoted in Ackley's <a href="https://cdn.aaai.org/ojs/9802/9802-13-13330-1-2-20201228.pdf">Indefinite Scalability for Living Computation</a> — god help you if you read our show notes and don't listen to the episode.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something">"It is difficult"</a>, says <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair">Upton Sinclair</a> when asked about Jimmy Miller being Jimmy Miller, and how we all ought to approach our own sense of Jimmy Miller.</li>
</ul>
Music featured in this episode:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ivanish.ca/hawker-news">Hawker News</a> by <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=spiralganglion">user: spiralganglion</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAtX4PjUXrM">Corporate World</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Brothers">Dust Brothers</a></li>
</ul>
No more jokes! Find us at these normal places:
<ul>
<li>Ivan: <a href="https://mastodon.social/@spiralganglion">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://ivanish.ca/">Website</a></li>
<li>Jimmy: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/">Website</a></li>
<li>Lu: <a href="https://mas.to/@TodePond">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.todepond.com/">Website</a></li>
<li>Dave: <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@livcomp">Mastodon</a> • <a href="https://www.cs.unm.edu/~ackley/">Website</a></li>
</ul>
Send us <a href="mailto:admin@futureofcoding.org?subject=Email%20from%20a%20listener">email</a>, share your ideas in our <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/community">Slack</a>, and support the show on <a href="http://patreon.com/futureofcoding">Patreon</a>. Yes, do all three please.
http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/70

Beyond Efficiency by Dave Ackley

In the spirit of clearly communicating what you're signing up for, this podcast episode is nearly three hours long, and among other things it contains a discussion of a paper by author Mary Shaw titled Myths & Mythconceptions which takes as an organizing principle a collection of myths that are widely believed by programmers, largely unacknowledged, which shape our views on the nature of programming as an activity and the needs of programmers as people and the sort of work that we do as a sort of work, and where by acknowledging these myths the three of us (Mary Shaw primarily, and by extension Jimmy and I, those three people, that's it, no other people appear on this podcast) are able to more vividly grip the image of programming with our mind's eye (or somesuch) and conceive of a different formulation for programming, and in addition to these myths this paper also incudes a number of excellent lists that I take great pleasure in reading, beyond which I should also note that the paper does a job of explaining itself and that hopefully you'll find I've done a similar job, that's the spirit, please enjoy.

Links

$ patreon.com/futureofcoding — I've recently changed it so that there's only 1 instance of the INTERCAL tier available, so if you're interested in those perks you'd better hop on it quick before nobody else does!
There's also a video, though I haven't watched it.
Claude Shannon would have something to say about revealing information.
Top 10 Hits of the End of the World is an album by Prince Rama. Listen to it as loudly as you can on Bandcamp, Spotify, or Apple Music.
Val Town is the new startup by Future of Coding community founder Steve Krouse
Ivan recently took a job at Ink & Switch on the "Ink" research track.
Programmer Bums, or, rather, Computer Bums
Limmy's Wa
Retool
MythBusters
The Flop House's Final Judgements: Good-Bad, Bad-Bad, Kinda-Like
CRDT
Data
Robust-First Computing is an approach championed by the hero Dave Ackley, and I have a well-informed hunch that you'll be hearing a lot more about it in future episodes.
The T2 Tile Project is another Ackley joint that, perhaps, works as a wild example of what Mary Shaw means when she talks about an "execution ecosystem".
Devine's talk at Strange Loop: An approach to computing and sustainability inspired from permaculture
MUMPS (the medical thing, not to be confused with mumps the medical thing) is used by Epic (the software company, not to be confused with Epic the software company).
The Glass Cannon podcast network.
Lu's SPLASH talk Cellpond: Spatial Programming without Escape
The Turing tarpit
Functional Programming with Bananas, Lenses, Envelopes and Barbed Wire by Erik Meijer, Maarten Fokkinga, Ross Paterson.
Richard D. James is the same person as Richard P. (Peter) Gabriel, right?
Similarly, see Neil Armstrong's work on Erlang (which is popular in telephony, right?).
The Witness is not going to appear in our show notes.
Jack Rusher. Jack Rusher? Jack Rusher!
TrainJam
Gary Bernhardt's talk Ideology

Nobody remarked on these silly links last time, so this time I'm drawing more attention to them:
Tode: Neopets • MySpace
Berd: Angelfire • Orkut
Bot: Geocities • Friendster

https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069

In the spirit of clearly communicating what you're signing up for, this podcast episode is nearly three hours long, and among other things it contains a discussion of a paper by author Mary Shaw titled <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3480947">Myths &amp; Mythconceptions</a> which takes as an organizing principle a collection of myths that are widely believed by programmers, largely unacknowledged, which shape our views on the nature of programming as an activity and the needs of programmers as people and the sort of work that we do as a sort of work, and where by acknowledging these myths the three of us (Mary Shaw primarily, and by extension Jimmy and I, those three people, that's it, no other people appear on this podcast) are able to more vividly grip the image of programming with our mind's eye (or <a href="https://aphantasia.com/">somesuch</a>) and conceive of a different formulation for programming, and in addition to these myths this paper also incudes a number of excellent lists that I take great pleasure in reading, beyond which I should also note that the paper does a job of explaining itself and that hopefully you'll find I've done a similar job, that's the spirit, please enjoy.
Links
$ <a href="https://www.patreon.com/futureofcoding">patreon.com/futureofcoding</a> — I've recently changed it so that there's only 1 instance of the INTERCAL tier available, so if you're interested in those perks you'd better hop on it quick before nobody else does!
<ul>
<li>There's also a <a href="https://www.pldi21.org/prerecorded_hopl.K1.html">video</a>, though I haven't watched it.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon">Claude Shannon</a> would have something to say about revealing information.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_10_Hits_of_the_End_of_the_World">Top 10 Hits of the End of the World</a> is an album by Prince Rama. Listen to it as loudly as you can on <a href="https://princerama.bandcamp.com/album/top-ten-hits-of-the-end-of-the-world">Bandcamp</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2pbvIz40L97L87KGFnFnme?si=zbzT8JHKTCGJkObmh4qN1g">Spotify</a>, or <a href="https://music.apple.com/ca/album/top-ten-hits-of-the-end-of-the-world/1583505277">Apple Music</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.val.town/">Val Town</a> is the new startup by Future of Coding community founder <a href="https://stevekrouse.com/">Steve Krouse</a></li>
<li>Ivan recently took a job at <a href="https://www.inkandswitch.com/">Ink &amp; Switch</a> on the "Ink" research track.</li>
<li><a href="https://daily.jstor.org/how-computer-science-became-a-boys-club/">Programmer Bums</a>, or, rather, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682955?mag=how-computer-science-became-a-boys-club">Computer Bums</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GceNsojnMf0">Limmy's Wa</a></li>
<li><a href="https://retool.com/">Retool</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters">MythBusters</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flop_House">The Flop House</a>'s <a href="https://flophousepodcast.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Judgments">Final Judgements: Good-Bad, Bad-Bad, Kinda-Like</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict-free_replicated_data_type">CRDT</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_(Star_Trek)">Data</a></li>
<li><a href="https://andrewwalpole.com/blog/an-introduction-to-robust-first-computation/">Robust-First Computing</a> is an approach championed by the hero <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@livcomp">Dave Ackley</a>, and I have a well-informed hunch that you'll be hearing a lot more about it in future episodes.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jreRFxN6wuM">The T2 Tile Project</a> is another Ackley joint that, perhaps, works as a wild example of what Mary Shaw means when she talks about an "execution ecosystem".</li>
<li><a href="https://xxiivv.com/">Devine</a>'s talk at Strange Loop: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3u7bGgVspM">An approach to computing and sustainability inspired from permaculture</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS">MUMPS</a> (the medical thing, not to be confused with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumps">mumps</a> the medical thing) is used by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Systems">Epic</a> (the software company, not to be confused with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games">Epic</a> the software company).</li>
<li>The <a href="https://www.glasscannonnetwork.com/">Glass Cannon</a> podcast network.</li>
<li>Lu's SPLASH talk <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYudbaqHAk&amp;t=6704s">Cellpond: Spatial Programming without Escape</a></li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tarpit">Turing tarpit</a></li>
<li><a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.41.125">Functional Programming with Bananas, Lenses, Envelopes and Barbed Wire</a> by Erik Meijer, Maarten Fokkinga, Ross Paterson.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Twin">Richard D. James</a> is the same person as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Gabriel">Richard P. (Peter) Gabriel</a>, right?</li>
<li>Similarly, see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a>'s work on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_(unit)">Erlang</a> (which is popular in telephony, right?).</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game)">The Witness</a> is not going to appear in our show notes.</li>
<li><a href="https://jackrusher.com/">Jack Rusher</a>. <a href="https://berlin.social/@jack">Jack Rusher</a>? <a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/041">Jack Rusher</a>!</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qVT0URkkGE">TrainJam</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/">Gary Bernhardt</a>'s talk <a href="https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/ideology">Ideology</a></li>
</ul>
Nobody remarked on these silly links last time, so this time I'm drawing more attention to them:
<ul>
<li>Tode: <a href="https://mas.to/@todepond">Neopets</a> • <a href="https://www.patreon.com/todepond">MySpace</a></li>
<li>Berd: <a href="https://mas.to/@todepond">Angelfire</a> • <a href="https://www.patreon.com/todepond">Orkut</a></li>
<li>Bot: <a href="https://mas.to/@todepond">Geocities</a> • <a href="https://www.patreon.com/todepond">Friendster</a></li>
</ul>
<a href="https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069">https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/069</a>

Compassion & Programming: Glen Chiacchieri

In 1 playlist(s)

Future of Coding

Social links

Recent clips