Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN repeatedly names it among the best programming talks, loved for its craftsmanship message that complex tooling can hide simpler solutions.
What it is
Tim Ewald's Clojure/conj talk uses furniture making with hand tools versus machine tools as an allegory for software. It explores how automation changes what we make and how we think about our work, and why Clojure's small set of simple tools matters.
Recommended by 9 HN commenters across 10 different months, 2014 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec spacemanmatt · 2016-12 · on “Talks that changed the way I think about programming”
I gotta throw in one of my favorites, because I have not seen another that really speaks so directly to the value of craftsmanship in development. I also deeply enjoyed the allegory with woodworking tools. [this video]
Strong rec ludwa6 · 2020-06 · on “Woodworking for Engineers”
Must-see presentation (~1hour) for anyone interested in this topic is "Programming With Hand Tools" by Tim Ewald: [this video]
Recommends mark_h · 2014-01 · on “Best development book I've read, has no code in it”
There was a talk at Clojure/conj by Tim Ewald on just that: [this video] "Programming with hand tools" Lots of conference reviews nominated it in their favourite talks too.
Recommends fmjrey · 2016-11 · on “Beginning Woodworking”
Can't help but mention this great video where an enthusiast woodworking engineer makes a parallel between tools in the real world and tools in computing: [this video]
Recommends aidos · 2017-01 · on “Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?”
I also think it seems pretty appealing. There have been some interesting things on HN over the years about it. I loved this talk about how the tools you use determine how you look at problems (Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools) [this video] And if you haven't seen him before, you're about to fall in love with Matthias Wandel: [LINK] [LINK]
Recommends aidos · 2018-10 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've heard?”
I'm not a Closure coder but I loved this talk on how as your tooling becomes more complex and automated, you start to lose sight of simpler solutions to problems. It's all about woodworking! Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools [this video]
Recommends datahead · 2020-11 · on “Cheap Router Table and Lift”
Interesting presentation that explores your question. +1 intersection from this commenter. Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools [this video]
Recommends dgb23 · 2021-11 · on “Automation != Leverage”
Good article! Two things popped into my head when reading it. First the talk "Programming with Hand Tools" by Tim Edwald[0]. It's a very cool, entertaining talk with emphasis on the craftsmanship side of things and provokes thinking about which parts to automate (or maybe abstract away) and which parts to craft by hand when we're building stuff. Aside: also reminds me of Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero project [1]. He is a strong advocate for structuring things bottom up and building them ourselves. [0] [this video] [1] [LINK] --- Secondly when reading this: > Regardless, the basic idea is that companies are often faced with the decision of doing N units of shitty work or far fewer than N units of