3 ms·

Ask HN: Best tech talks you have heard in 2023?

23 points by __rito__ 3y ago

It doesn't need to be from 2023. And it doesn't need to be strictly technical. I have come across a great many technical talks from past HN threads [0-5]. This submission is in the spirit of those. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12637239 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16838460 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15926973 [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25537230 [4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18740939 [5]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21858866

mikewarot 3y ago
Kevlin Henney completely changed my world view on programming, when I watched his presentation Concurrent Affairs: Procedural Programming Unlocked - NDC London 2022, earlier this year.[1] "when you introduce concurrency into a non-concurrent environment what you do is you change the laws of physics of your program, you change the nature of time" This is a profound insight. It totally changed how I think about the nature of multithreaded and multiprocessor based programming. Also from Kevlin - Refactoring to immutability[2], which showed me exactly why you would want immutable "variables". I never got the point of Rust before that. The "Borrow Checker" principle still seems nuts to me, nut at least I know there's logic behind it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi6ICEVVRiw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi6ICEVVRiw [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUCMSPiNh4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUCMSPiNh4
zogrodea 3y ago
More of a social one, but I liked The Economics of Programming Languages by the creator of Elm. https://youtu.be/XZ3w_jec1v8?si=aYnKmDhTf30t8Nn_ https://youtu.be/XZ3w_jec1v8?si=aYnKmDhTf30t8Nn_
- __rito__ 3y ago
  I really liked that one, too. Included it in my comment.
__rito__ 3y ago
For me, my favorites were: 0. "Computational Physics, Beyond the Glass" by Sam Ritchie (Strange Loop 2023) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv2JgzAl5yU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv2JgzAl5yU - This guy created an interactive Lisp-based Physics visualizer and got started on it by reading Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics. He now has a full-fledged project, and touches upon many ideas for educating people through innovative means. Really loved this video. Connected the ideas of Logo programming environment and something like a LISP-Physics visualizer. 1. "The Economics of Programming Languages" by Evan Czaplicki (Strange Loop 2023) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3w_jec1v8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3w_jec1v8 - How does creating a new programming language work really? Who are the players, and what goes behind? Very highly recommend this funny, informative talk to understand aspects of creating a programming language other than the theoretical ones. 2. Function Composition in Programming Languages - Conor Hoekstra - CppNorth 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JELcdZLre3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JELcdZLre3s - This is actually about array languages and Haskell and not C++. Encountered "tacit" programming for the first time, and it opened a slightly new way of thinking for me. And others that I liked were: 0. Ruby on Rails: The Documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDKUEXBF3B4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDKUEXBF3B4 - Not a Rubbyist, but still liked this documentary. 1. "Software & The Game of Go" by David Nolen (Strange Loop 2023) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2yJ3FBtU4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2yJ3FBtU4Y 2. "Making Hard Things Easy" by Julia Evans (Strange Loop 2023) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30YWsGDr8mA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30YWsGDr8mA - I always liked Evans' written content and zines, as they were fun to read and helped people. It was nice to see how she operates, thinks, and works- that go behind all of these.
in9 3y ago
Here are a few that come to mind: 1. Hal Varian's (Chief Economist at Google) presentation on how to incorporate Google Trends term information in univariate time series models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kb89ccsSPQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kb89ccsSPQ 2. What is a standard error, where a few econometricians and statisticians present the notion of standard error when N = all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqs2yQOXEP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqs2yQOXEP8
gardenhedge 3y ago
[1hr Talk] Intro to Large Language Models by Andrej Karpathy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g
gnatman 3y ago
"Great Impractical Ideas in Computer Science: PowerPoint Programming" Tom Wildenham (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3loq22TxSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3loq22TxSc Really fun, kinda blew my mind. Guy got a job at Microsoft shortly after giving this talk.
flowzai 3y ago
All are valuable