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The Language of the System - Rich Hickey

ClojureTV · talk · Watch on YouTube

Software architecture & designFunctional programmingDistributed systems

What it is

Rich Hickey's 2013 talk applies language-design thinking to whole systems, covering names, queues, data, failure, and the interfaces between programs. It ends with a call to action for building systems holistically.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a key Hickey talk on system design that changes how people think about distributed state and interfaces.

  • 10 people recommended it
  • 9 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2013, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “it has really changed the way I look at distributed persistent storage.”

    Changed how commenter views distributed persistent storage

    divs1210, 2015-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Avout: Distributed State in Clojure”

  2. “strongest programming speaker I've found to date.”

    Among the talks that made things click

    elamje, 2021-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: Programming talks that made something click for you?”

  3. “Also might be of interest to watch Rich Hickey's 'Language of the System'.”

    Breaks a system into data store, queue, and other parts

    hueyp, 2014-07 · Recommendation · in “Queues and databases”

  4. “Some of the importent keynotes from some of the early conjs are really importent”

    One of the key Clojure design talks

    nickik, 2014-12 · Recommendation · in “A farewell note to a programming language”

  5. “An interesting and useful criticism would first engage with the strongest arguments of Rich Hickey”

    Hickey's arguments behind Transit and edn

    oskarth, 2015-10 · Recommendation · in “Transit: JSON Data Interchange Format”

  6. “I think a good companion to understanding this better is Rich's talk on "The Language of the System”

    Explains why Clojure favors simple universal data structures for systems

    carljv, 2017-10 · Recommendation · in “Effective Programs: 10 Years of Clojure”

  7. “gave a talk with some very relevant points in this space”

    Relevant points on system interfaces

    dunk010, 2019-05 · Recommendation · in “Why We’re Switching to gRPC”

  8. “I would recommend Rich Hickey's talk "The Language of the System”

    System design above language choice

    ISO-morphism, 2019-11 · Recommendation · in “Keep your source code SIMPLE”

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

Topics: rich hickey, clojure, distributed systems, queues, data-oriented design, datomic

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