Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?

701 points by ratpik ↗ HN
Could be related to software engineering or any other field that is enabled via technology.

Do include a link to the talk if it is available online.

151 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 189 ms ] thread
Alex Evan's talk on developing the renderer for Dreams:

He's given several versions of this talk (including the Advancements in Real-time Rendering course at Siggraph), but here's one available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9KNtnCZDMI

Most recently I really liked "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Dynamic Typing for Practical Programs": https://vimeo.com/74354480

The ones that had the most profound effect for me would be Linus's talk about git and Carsten Dominik on org-mode.

Also, Richard Feynman explaining how computers work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA This actually changed the way I think about it after years of programming.

This talk was an interesting thought experiment by PhK of FreeBSD on how if he were tasked by some agency to sabotage open source projects and standards how he would go about doing it https://youtu.be/fwcl17Q0bpk

A talk by Robert Harper at OPLSS in 2017 is really good as well, covering the basics of programming language background https://www.cs.uoregon.edu/research/summerschool/summer17/to... "concrete syntax is where computer science meets psychology.... at the moment it's all a matter of opinion"

I find Runar Bjarnason's talks to be interesting; one of my favourites is 'Constraints Liberate, Liberties Constrain':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqmsQeSzMdw

The essence of it is that constraints actually allow for easier composition and more modularity. It had a real impact on the way I think about the design of systems.

Anything by Bryan Cantrill (Joyent, prev Sun) or Arthur Bergman (Fastly, prev Wikia).
We Really Don't Know How to Compute: Gerry Sussman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tVctB_VSU

Zebras All the Way Down: Bryan Cantrill - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE2KDzZaxvE

Jonathan Blow on Deep Work: Jonathan Blow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ej_3NKA3pk

Simple Made Easy: Rich Hickey - https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

Effective Programs - 10 Years of Clojure: Rich Hickey - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V1FtfBDsLU&t=845s

The Last Thing D Needs: Scott Meyers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAWA1DuvCnQ

Rich Hickey is great. I remember his Simplicity Matters keynote at Rails Conf 2012. So clear and insightful.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI8tNMsozo0
Being able to explain a complex topic to diverse audiences is not easy to do. Rich does it very well.
The first time I watched Simple Made Easy, I didn't like it, even though I'd written quite a few situated programs in my day. A year later, I'd learned Clojure and re-watched it, and it all made so much sense. It's now one of my favorite tech talks.
Gerry Sussman talk is awesome and reflects very well the currently state of computer programming. It's a shame. The worse part: there is people around us with a lot of pride ABOUT DON'T KNOWING TO COMPUTE BUT STILL DOING [INNEFICIENT] THINGS. (sorry for the caps, good bye)
I hope I found We Really Don't Know How to Compute: Gerry Sussman talk with better resolution and camera on the board
Bryan Cantrill's USENIX talk - Fork Yeah! The Rise and Development of illumos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc

He gives a history of SunOS, Solaris, and OpenSolaris up to the Oracle acquisition, and then onto post acquisition and the creation of illumos. It's a brilliant talk and a must-watch for any Unix enthusiast or historian. Bryan is an incredibly engaging speaker.

Not a proper tech talk, but hearing Ben Chestnut talk about the early days and growth of MailChimp stuck with me.

https://vimeo.com/34081566

Bootstrapped to over half a billion dollars in revenue. Worth many multiples of that. Built it Atlanta, not a startup city. B2B, but with a more creative ethos than most VC-backed startups in SF. Just an extraordinary story, well worth the hour it takes to watch.