4 ms·

Oh really, that's interesting. Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base and I'm an ignoramus or is it a case of some of the users of longer sta

by s_Hogg 7y ago

Oh really, that's interesting. Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base and I'm an ignoramus or is it a case of some of the users of longer standing being vocal about Lisp?

barbecue_sauce 7y ago
I would guess that the majority of HN users never even think about the fact that the site is affiliated with Y Combinator and its associated personalities.
- s_Hogg 7y ago
  I'm well aware of the start up incubator link, but you're definitely right otherwise in my case. When you get here it just looks like a nice lil' news site!
- detaro 7y ago
  Quite likely, but also something users that have been around a long time might not think about. From my understanding, in the early days of HN the link was a lot closer (content-wise, pg participating on the site, ...)
lispm 7y ago
Among Lisp users this is known... Also if one knows a bit about Lisp history, the headline "O'Reilly agreed to publish a book about Common Lisp" triggers some memories, since for a long time O'Reilly actively discouraged people from trying to contact them about publishing Lisp books. ;-)
- s_Hogg 7y ago
  That's reasonably hilarious, thanks for the info :)
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Wait, why?
  - Jtsummers 7y ago
    They didn’t sell well. It doesn’t matter how interesting or important a topic is. Eventually a publishing business has to decide on what their limits are for risk/reward. O’Reilly had decided that Lisp books cost too much and brought in too little for them.
Waterluvian 7y ago
No no it's not just you. I get this kind of thing from the HN community now and then too. I once got chewed out for not knowing who Paul Graham is.
- edraferi 7y ago
  Sorry about that. People should use these kinds of questions as an opportunity to educate, not brag/exclude/shame. Relevant XKCD: https://www.xkcd.com/1053/ https://www.xkcd.com/1053/
- kirubakaran 7y ago
  This might catch you up a little bit :-) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60357
  - andrewflnr 7y ago
    Nice. This is my favorite: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60503 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60503
- kazinator 7y ago
  You'd probably get chewed out on Facebook for not knowing who is Mark Zuckerberg.
  - Waterluvian 7y ago
    The concept of needing to know the key figures behind each website you use is detached so far from the reality of being a human in the 21st century.
heartbreak 7y ago
Pretty sure HN itself is written with Lisp.
- harperlee 7y ago
  A lisp dialect called arc, created by Paul Graham himself: http://arclanguage.com/ http://arclanguage.com/
nnq 7y ago
> Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base Paul Graham's essays are widely known among the HN user base, especially the "Beating the Averages" [1] one. Some of those who've read it know a bit more about the deeper history. And others obsessed with the "10x programmer" myth and they randomly stumble upon Lisp as one of the many "magic oils" that are rumored to make one into such a mythical creature. It's a big circle jerk imho, but there's a lot to be learned for any programmer from modern Lisp-family languages like Clojure or Scheme/Racket. CL is also worth playing with if you want to know how a truly-hyper-flexible language feels like, but it's probably not a good tool to use unless your problem requires you to invent a new programming language but at the same time you have no time/budget/people to actually do it "the academic way" so you need a weird ducktaped-nuclear-power-tool to hack your way at the problem. Guess that's why some folk in quantum computing and computational chemistry and other on-the-edge-fields tend to pick it from time to time, but it gets replaced with other tech after the really hard research problem gets solved and the software gets rewritten to something else for v2.0. I alway re-try playing with it but it never sticks in my head, the [Python + (C++ or Rust or Go)] combo always wins over it. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
- badfrog 7y ago
  > Paul Graham's essays are widely known among the HN user base I'm not sure that's true anymore. I think there's a much wider variety of people here now than 10 years ago.
- beezle 7y ago
  Before today I did not know who Paul Graham was, what he had done or the lispy association to HN. Then again, I'm a few thousand miles from the Bay area and not much of one for keeping track of personalities in any field. Though I am of course interested in things 'tech' related for both work and personal reasons. Am I really in the minority of HN? Any programmer benefits from exposure to language families other than the one that is their daily driver. Even within familiers there can be nuances and differences that are worth at least a passing thought. Probably applies to life in general too.
- zshrdlu 7y ago
dreamcompiler 7y ago
You're probably not an ignoramus. You're probably just new here. No sin in that.

by s_Hogg 7y ago

Oh really, that's interesting. Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base and I'm an ignoramus or is it a case of some of the users of longer standing being vocal about Lisp?

barbecue_sauce 7y ago

I would guess that the majority of HN users never even think about the fact that the site is affiliated with Y Combinator and its associated personalities.

s_Hogg 7y ago
I'm well aware of the start up incubator link, but you're definitely right otherwise in my case. When you get here it just looks like a nice lil' news site!
detaro 7y ago
Quite likely, but also something users that have been around a long time might not think about. From my understanding, in the early days of HN the link was a lot closer (content-wise, pg participating on the site, ...)

lispm 7y ago

Among Lisp users this is known... Also if one knows a bit about Lisp history, the headline "O'Reilly agreed to publish a book about Common Lisp" triggers some memories, since for a long time O'Reilly actively discouraged people from trying to contact them about publishing Lisp books. ;-)

s_Hogg 7y ago
That's reasonably hilarious, thanks for the info :)
CydeWeys 7y ago
Wait, why?
- Jtsummers 7y ago
  They didn’t sell well. It doesn’t matter how interesting or important a topic is. Eventually a publishing business has to decide on what their limits are for risk/reward. O’Reilly had decided that Lisp books cost too much and brought in too little for them.

Waterluvian 7y ago

No no it's not just you. I get this kind of thing from the HN community now and then too. I once got chewed out for not knowing who Paul Graham is.

edraferi 7y ago
Sorry about that. People should use these kinds of questions as an opportunity to educate, not brag/exclude/shame. Relevant XKCD: https://www.xkcd.com/1053/ https://www.xkcd.com/1053/
kirubakaran 7y ago
This might catch you up a little bit :-) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60357 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60357
- andrewflnr 7y ago
  Nice. This is my favorite: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60503 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60503
kazinator 7y ago
You'd probably get chewed out on Facebook for not knowing who is Mark Zuckerberg.
- Waterluvian 7y ago
  The concept of needing to know the key figures behind each website you use is detached so far from the reality of being a human in the 21st century.

heartbreak 7y ago

Pretty sure HN itself is written with Lisp.

harperlee 7y ago
A lisp dialect called arc, created by Paul Graham himself: http://arclanguage.com/ http://arclanguage.com/

nnq 7y ago

> Is that sort of info widely known among the HN user base Paul Graham's essays are widely known among the HN user base, especially the "Beating the Averages" [1] one. Some of those who've read it know a bit more about the deeper history. And others obsessed with the "10x programmer" myth and they randomly stumble upon Lisp as one of the many "magic oils" that are rumored to make one into such a mythical creature. It's a big circle jerk imho, but there's a lot to be learned for any programmer from modern Lisp-family languages like Clojure or Scheme/Racket. CL is also worth playing with if you want to know how a truly-hyper-flexible language feels like, but it's probably not a good tool to use unless your problem requires you to invent a new programming language but at the same time you have no time/budget/people to actually do it "the academic way" so you need a weird ducktaped-nuclear-power-tool to hack your way at the problem. Guess that's why some folk in quantum computing and computational chemistry and other on-the-edge-fields tend to pick it from time to time, but it gets replaced with other tech after the really hard research problem gets solved and the software gets rewritten to something else for v2.0. I alway re-try playing with it but it never sticks in my head, the [Python + (C++ or Rust or Go)] combo always wins over it. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

badfrog 7y ago
> Paul Graham's essays are widely known among the HN user base I'm not sure that's true anymore. I think there's a much wider variety of people here now than 10 years ago.
beezle 7y ago
Before today I did not know who Paul Graham was, what he had done or the lispy association to HN. Then again, I'm a few thousand miles from the Bay area and not much of one for keeping track of personalities in any field. Though I am of course interested in things 'tech' related for both work and personal reasons. Am I really in the minority of HN? Any programmer benefits from exposure to language families other than the one that is their daily driver. Even within familiers there can be nuances and differences that are worth at least a passing thought. Probably applies to life in general too.
zshrdlu 7y ago

dreamcompiler 7y ago

You're probably not an ignoramus. You're probably just new here. No sin in that.