Why Programming Is a Good Medium for Expressing Poorly Understood Ideas (1967)
Report a link problem
Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderMy PhD supervisor used to say: "one week of programming easily saves an hour of thinking"
My programming lecturer used to say "programming is the process of breaking a problem down so a high speed idiot can understand it, if you don't understand the problem then you can't explain it". He also said that a programmers most useful tool was a pencil and a 5mm square A4 pad. After years of solving thorny problems by getting away from the screen and scribbling in a pad I can't say he was wrong.
... poorly understood - and sloppily formulated - ideas This is my favorite part of programming :) You have an idea and attempt to codify it. During the process, your code starts to get uglier and uglier. Refactoring the code leads you to re-examine your conceptualization of the problem, leading to new insights outside the domain of programming. If your code does not lend well to abstraction, it's a good indicator that perhaps your idea has missed the mark. See…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 374
- Total comments
- 157
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-08-11 | Why programming is a good medium for expressing poorly understood ideas | urlwolf | 43 | 4 |
| 2015-02-26 | Marvin Minsky on programming and sloppily-formulated ideas | bufo | 2 | 0 |
| 2016-01-22 | Why programming is a good medium for expressing poorly understood ideas (1967)First breakout | andrelaszlo | 142 | 66 |
| 2019-03-04 | Why programming is a good medium for expressing poorly understood ideas (1967) | bibyte | 1 | 0 |
| 2019-12-14 | Why Programming Is a Good Medium for Expressing Poorly Understood Ideas (1967) | mpiedrav | 5 | 0 |
| 2020-05-10 | Why Programming Is a Good Medium for Expressing Poorly Understood Ideas (1967)Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | kick | 178 | 87 |
| 2024-02-20 | Why Programming Is a Good Medium for Expressing Poorly Understood Ideas (1967) | theyinwhy | 3 | 0 |