The Language of the System - Rich Hickey

ClojureTV · 174.4K views · 2013-02-28 · 1:02:50

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Overview

Rich Hickey's 2013 talk applies language-design thinking to whole systems, covering names, queues, data, failure, and the interfaces between programs. It ends with a call to action for building systems holistically.

On Hacker News

HN recommends it as a key Hickey talk on system design that changes how people think about distributed state and interfaces.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 9 months · HN mentions 2013–2025

Topics

Software architecture & design Functional programming Distributed systems

What people said

elamje · 2021-10 · Strong recommendation
Simple Made Easy ( [LINK] ) The Language of the System ( [VIDEO] ) The Value of Values ( [LINK] ) All by Rich Hickey (Clojure creator) - strongest programming speaker I've found to date.
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divs1210 · 2015-10 · Strong recommendation
I came across this after watching Rich Hickey's The Language of The System [1], and it has really changed the way I look at distributed persistent storage. Any thoughts? [1] [VIDEO]
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travisjungroth · 2022-01 · Recommendation
EDN has some really good ideas in it. Here's the main spec: [LINK] The Learn X in Y Minutes: [LINK] A related talk by Rich Hickey that I think you'd find interesting: [VIDEO] For a schema, I'd start with what CUE has done. The idea of types that constrain down as a lattice + a separate default path really resonates with me. [LINK]
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Sources

Video by ClojureTV, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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