hackertube.io

Stop Writing Classes

Next Day Video · talk · Watch on YouTube

Python, Ruby & scripting languagesSoftware architecture & design

What it is

Jack Diederich's PyCon 2012 talk argues that classes are overused in Python and walks through real code, refactoring away unnecessary classes, exceptions and modules. It popularized the heuristic that a class with two methods, one being __init__, should be a function.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN returns to it repeatedly as the canonical argument for simplicity and against premature abstraction, and several commenters say it changed how they write code.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 8 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2012, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “You can (and should!) watch it online here”

    Jack Diederich's PyCon talk on avoiding unnecessary classes

    inglesp, 2012-10 · Strong recommendation · in “An Object is not a Hash”

  2. “Then I saw the video above, and all fell into place.”

    Talk that changed their view on class-based OOP

    Vaskivo, 2014-12 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What do you think about using classes in Python?”

  3. “Stop writing classes is one of my favorites.”

    Personal favorite PyCon talk

    kyleperik, 2018-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”

  4. “Jack Diederich has a great video called Stop Writing Classes: It's about Python, but the observation can apply to several languages.”

    Applies to several languages beyond Python

    michelpp, 2020-03 · Strong recommendation · in “I Don't Use Classes”

  5. “I also really liked Jack Diederich's talk "stop writing classes" at PyCon 2012”

    Diederich's PyCon 2012 talk on avoiding classes

    gingerlime, 2013-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's the best technical talk you've heard?”

  6. “Also a colleague made me watch this from Jack Diederich”

    Colleague-recommended Diederich talk

    jmielkeway, 2021-08 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What has improved You as a Developer?”

  7. “Changed my perspective on this newfound tool I'd learned to use called "indirection".”

    Changed perspective on over-using indirection

    1penny42cents, 2022-05 · Recommendation · in ““What if it changes?””

  8. “I'm a fan of (former core dev) Jack Diederich's talk,”

    Talk from former core dev about overusing classes

    zahlman, 2025-10 · Recommendation · in “Why Is Python So Popular in 2025?”

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

Topics: python, pycon, object-oriented design, refactoring, simplicity

Also recommended by the same people