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"Stop Writing Dead Programs" by Jack Rusher (Strange Loop 2022)

Jack Rusher's Strange Loop 2022 talk argues that most programming languages are still designed around punchcard-era assumptions. He makes the case for live, interactive programming environments, drawing on Lisp, Smalltalk and REPL-driven development.

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Why HN readers recommended it

HN returns to it constantly as the talk on live programming and what modern tooling is missing, though a few found it too much.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
Strange Loop Conference
Topic
live programming environments
Format
talk
Level
intermediate
HN recommenders in dataset
9
HN mentions in dataset
20
Recommendation years in dataset
2022–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • Live development is still so under-explored, and is just so exciting to work with. One of my favorite talks is "Stop Writing Dead Programs" ( [VIDEO] ) and touches on a lot of what could be in terms of live development. Lisp is very well-suited …

    jasonjmcghee on Hacker News · 2025-04
    In Graphics livecoding in Common Lisp

  • Because we live in a free society and smoking is a proper right. It is unhealthy and largely outdated habit but if you want to light a cigarette, you can. Programming in C++ is also an outdated habit. There are better languages, better technologies, and …

    okaleniuk on Hacker News · 2023-01
    In LearnCPP: Website devoted to teaching you how to program in C++

  • Your "unpopular rant" (or one pretty much like it) has 376k views and 12k likes on youtube![1] (Recommended watch, not least for demystifying the origin of vi's navigation keys and the choice of ~/ for /home/you.) 1: [VIDEO] (link jumps to 16:52)

    ttctciyf on Hacker News · 2023-01
    In Ask HN: What's your unpopular tech, programming opinion

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

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