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Old Is the New New • Kevlin Henney • GOTO 2018

GOTO Conferences · talk · Watch on YouTube

Software practice, open source & careersSoftware architecture & design

What it is

Kevlin Henney's GOTO 2018 talk argues that much of what looks new in software is a recycling of concepts with long histories. It draws on history to show the slow, steady current beneath constant churn in frameworks and trends.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it for historical perspective on software ideas and for dispelling myths such as the origins of waterfall.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2020

What HN commenters said

  1. “There's a talk well worth watching by Kevlin Henney called 'Old Is the New New' [1]”

    Waterfall originally included design iteration, later forgotten

    Fr0styMatt88, 2019-09 · Strong recommendation · in “AgileFall – When Waterfall Sneaks Back into Agile”

  2. “Covers programming concepts that keep being recycled as new”

    lugg, 2019-10 · Recommendation · in ““Special register groups” invaded computer dictionaries for decades”

  3. “I can recommend Old Is the New New by Kevlin Henney for a good, historical perspective”

    Historical perspective on how little actually changes in software

    kqr, 2020-03 · Recommendation · in “How I became a better programmer (2017)”

  4. “I would recommend watching this talk [0] from Kevlin Henney to anyone who likes that book.”

    Pairs well with The Mythical Man-Month

    eralps, 2020-04 · Recommendation · in “Books I recommend to my software engineering students”

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

Topics: kevlin henney, software history, waterfall, patterns, programming

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