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"The Mess We're In" by Joe Armstrong

Strange Loop Conference · 397.9K views · 2014-09-19 · 45:50

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Overview

Joe Armstrong, co-inventor of Erlang, gives a funny and opinionated Strange Loop talk on the tangled state of software: build tools, package managers, entropy and the physical limits of computation. He argues for ideas like naming things by content hash and throwing away your first version.

On Hacker News

HN returns to it constantly as a witty, still-accurate diagnosis of why software is bloated and messy, and as a go-to recommendation in any thread on modules, package managers or software quality.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 8 months · HN mentions 2014–2025

Topics

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What people said

leonroy · 2019-05 · Strong recommendation

> "The mess we're in" famous talk by joe amstrong For anyone else: [VIDEO] Fantastic watch, thanks for recommending. Sad to hear that Joe Armstrong passed away a few weeks ago.

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dpeck · 2019-04 · Strong recommendation

That is so sad, he was in his late 60s and it seemed like he had a lot of life left in him, talking about how software can get better and having a great (and sometimes snarky) outlook on the profession. Highly recommend his thesis (2003) and a few of his great interviews/presentations for anyone who isn’t familiar with Joe, it captures a lot of what he thought about and pushed for in his professional life. [LINK] [LINK] [VIDEO] [LINK] I hope his family and friends can find some comfort in how much he was appreciated and admired in the development community.

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zaph0d_ · 2019-04 · Strong recommendation

This is absolutely devastating! His talk "The Mess We're In" was one of those talks which were incredibly funny and informative at the same time. I absolutely lost it, when he told the story of the single comment his coworker put into the Erlang code.[1] Rest in peace! [1] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Strange Loop Conference, played through YouTube.

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