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Jonathan Blow - Preventing the Collapse of Civilization (English only)

bus · talk · Watch on YouTube

Software architecture & designSoftware performance & optimizationFuturism & technology and society

What it is

Jonathan Blow's DevGAMM 2019 talk argues that software knowledge is being lost between generations and that growing layers of abstraction could lead to a decline in technological civilization.

Why Hacker News recommends it

A perennial HN reference for arguments that software is getting worse and that hard-won knowledge is disappearing.

  • 11 people recommended it
  • 8 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “I recommend watching this incredible talk (it's about software)”

    Argues for careful, quality software over shipping broken products

    spectramax, 2020-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Stop Perfecting, Start Shipping”

  2. “Very much worth watching in its entirety and thinking about”

    Full talk worth watching and thinking about

    colllectorof, 2021-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Text editing hates you too (2019)”

  3. “If you'd like to venture further into this rabbit hole I can recommend”

    Blow's talk on software and civilization collapse

    worldsayshi, 2019-05 · Recommendation · in “Docker is vulnerable to a symlink-race attack”

  4. “Preventing the Collapse of Civilization, by Jonathan Blow”

    Listed among best talks of 2019

    beefman, 2019-12 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Best Talks of 2019?”

  5. “An interesting (programming) talk by Jonathan Blow on the subject of losing knowledge!”

    Interesting programming talk on losing knowledge

    mrspeaker, 2020-02 · Recommendation · in “Amateur radio skills prove useful during bushfire emergencies”

  6. “There's a great talk from game developer Jonathan Blow [1] that describes how knowledge is lost "generationally”

    Knowledge lost generationally from black-box abstractions

    perfect5th, 2020-06 · Recommendation · in “An Intro to Compilers (2017)”

  7. “Take a look at this”

    Programmers' declining cost-efficiency knowledge

    fagnerbrack, 2020-06 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Why is development so expensive?”

  8. “See his talk about preventing the end of civilization (!!)”

    Blow deplores state of software engineering, web programming in particular

    d_burfoot, 2021-05 · Recommendation · in “Crazy New Ideas”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: jonathan blow, abstraction, software quality, game development, knowledge loss

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