This is a joke. For those who didn't get the joke: 1. ~ and - are separate operators. - negates, ~ does this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/7207406 http://stackov

This is a joke. For those who didn't get the joke: 1. ~ and - are separate operators. - negates, ~ does this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/7207406 http://stackoverflow.com/a/7207406 2. Integers on computers are typically represented in two's complement notation: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~tomf/notes/cps104/twoscomp.html http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~tomf/notes/cps104/twoscomp.html 3. Now that we know how all the parts work, we can put them together step by step: ~-0010 => ~1110 => 0001 -~0010 => -1101 => 0011