James Mickens on JavaScript
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as a hilarious talk by a beloved speaker, and also uses it to jab at JavaScript's quirks.
What it is
James Mickens delivers his comedic rant about JavaScript and web programming, in his usual dry, hyperbolic style. It includes his account of learning the language from the O'Reilly Definitive Guide.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2018 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jvanderbot · 2023-01 · on “The Night Watch [pdf]”
James Mickens is a national treasure. Go watch his talks on YouTube and read everything he writes. [LINK] Excellence. Quality. Science. These are just a few of the words that have been applied to the illustrious research career of James Mickens. In the span of a few years, James Mickens has made deep, fundamental, and amazing contributions to various areas of computer science and life. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest scholars of his generation, James Mickens ran out of storage space for his awards in 1992, and he subsequently purchased a large cave to act as a warehouse/fortress from which he can defend himself during the inevitable robot war that was prophesied by the documentary
Recommends komuW · 2018-10 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've heard?”
1. Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible? - James Mickens [LINK] 2. James Mickens on JavaScript - James Mickens [this video] 3. Creating containers From Scratch - Liz Rice [LINK] 4. 2013 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: The Existence of Nothing - Panelists: J. Richard Gott, Jim Holt, Lawrence Krauss, Charles Seife, Eve Silverstein. Moderator: Neil deGrasse Tyson [LINK] 5. 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Is the Universe a Simulation? - Panelists: David Chalmers, Zohreh Davoudi, James Gates, Lisa Randall, Max Tegmark Moderator: Neil deGrasse Tyson [LINK] 6. Zig: A programming language designed for robustness, optimality, and clarity – Andrew Kelley [LINK] 7. Co
Recommends haimez · 2022-11 · on “In defense of linked lists”
I recommend James Micken’s JavaScript talk on this matter: [this video] (Time stamped to the beginning of the arrays section)
Cites RajT88 · 2025-06 · on “JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress)”
James Mickens on learning Javascript by using the O'Reilly Definitive Guide book: [this video] "At first I thought that this book was going to be like any other programming book; there's going to be some syntax a few examples a list of API's and so on, but as I read this book I realized it was like a Japanese game show - I was cast into this strange world that I didn't understand and I was forced to compete in these games of wit and strength that made no sense."
Critical thesuperbigfrog · 2022-12 · on “Ask HN: Why do we still build the web in XML?”
A better question is why Javascript is still being used: [LINK] [this video] Can't we just get WASM browser APIs and then do the web in whatever programming language we want?
Critical thesuperbigfrog · 2023-12 · on “Reforming Unix”
>> The things in this list are clearly mistakes. They aren't optimised, evolved solutions. They've just stuck around due to network effects. Hello, JavaScript: [LINK] [this video] Why are we waiting so long for WASM to replace JavaScript? [LINK] It's a similar story. Bad designs (perhaps they were reasonable given the circumstances?) that were set in stone due to network effects.