THE VIDEO SHELF · craftsmanship and simple tools in software
Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools
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.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN repeatedly names it among the best programming talks, loved for its craftsmanship message that complex tooling can hide simpler solutions.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- ClojureTV
- Topic
- craftsmanship and simple tools in software
- Format
- talk
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 9
- HN mentions in dataset
- 15
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2014–2024
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.
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. [VIDEO]
spacemanmatt on Hacker News · 2016-12
In Talks that changed the way I think about programmingMust-see presentation (~1hour) for anyone interested in this topic is "Programming With Hand Tools" by Tim Ewald: [VIDEO]
ludwa6 on Hacker News · 2020-06
In Woodworking for EngineersThere was a talk at Clojure/conj by Tim Ewald on just that: [VIDEO] "Programming with hand tools" Lots of conference reviews nominated it in their favourite talks too.
mark_h on Hacker News · 2014-01
In Best development book I've read, has no code in it
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.