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DB Markham
Personal blog · danielbmarkham.com · on HN as DanielBMarkhamprogrammingphilosophywriting
DB Markham's personal blog at danielbmarkham.com covers programming, philosophy and writing. Since 2021, 18 different Hacker News readers have linked it 63 times, most often “For the Love of All That's Holy, Use CCL to Control Complexity in Your Systems”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for an essay on the expanding dark forest and generative AI, which one commenter calls worth reading for anyone who missed it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Home page to the DB Markham Site. Philosophy, coding, writing, sci-fi
Most-linked posts?
- For the Love of All That's Holy, Use CCL to Control Complexity in Your Systems3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-02-11
- Negatives Stack; Positives Don't: The Number Line Model of Communication2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-06-12
- The Overlords Finally Showed Up2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-12-25
- Outlines of a Supercompiler in F#2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-24
- Why are Reusable Components so Difficult? (2016)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-09
- Epistemology Wars2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-04-27
- Cognition versus Programming: The Big Two – Why TDD?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-16
- Feedback Loops Are Bullshit2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-10-16
- Code Budgets2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-16
- Honest Microservices2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-22
What Hacker News says?
Related: From ~5 years ago. https://danielbmarkham.com/for-the-love-of-all-thats-holy-us... Understanding CCL is both critically important and will sink you into deep professional despair once you realize that the coding community has deep-set standards and social mores that prevent serious adoption.
Comment linking /for-the-love-of-all-thats-holy-use-ccl-to-control-complexity-in-your-systems/
on “Cognitive load is what matters”Submitted F# is the best coding language today as a story · 220 points
HN discussionWe are very much on the same page. I wrote about it here https://danielbmarkham.com/outlines-of-a-supercompiler-in-f/ Our industry tends to over-complicate things and get in its own way of making the world a better place. SuperCompilers are a worthwhile effort to fix that. We need more forces for good. Kudos.
Comment linking /outlines-of-a-supercompiler-in-f/
on “Graphviz 7”Submitted The Platform Is the Enemy as a story · 203 points
HN discussionI don't think most folks understand the problem, although the essay is getting there. In general, I don't think epistemology can be taught until pupils have enough world experience to map what's being taught with the rest of the body of scientific literature. In general, and I am wildly stereotyping, all people want a quick answer and then to move on. Younger people tend to do this quicker. Older people tend to dwel…
Comment linking /its-time-to-intellectually-grow-up/
on “Trust: The Need for Public Understanding of How Science Works”Submitted F# Good and Bad as a story · 120 points
HN discussion> However, as Michael Gordin, professor of the history of science at Princeton University, notes early on in his lively and thought-provoking survey of multiple dodgy and perhaps-not-as-dodgy-as-you-thought scientific areas, falsification invariably fails almost before it starts. How do you know that you’ve actually falsified a theory? Is getting a weird, unexpected result enough? I blogged about this thing a few mo…
Comment linking /negatives-stack-positives-dont-a-numberline-model-of-communication/
on “Why “Trusting the Science” Is Complicated”Submitted What's wrong with how we train, hire, and motivate programmers [video] as a story · 99 points
HN discussionI do a weekly roundup of tech stuff.[1] I flagged this story for inclusion, mostly because of the types of conversation I'm seeing on HN today. This is not "New age bullshit", although I understand the sentiment. The most frustrating part about studying how teams self-manage for success is that management theory consists of a lot of words and emotions and very little concrete theory. That doesn't make any of it wron…
Comment linking /
on “Heuristics for Effective Software Development: A continuously evolving list”Submitted Honest Microservices as a story · 93 points
HN discussionI know it's good commenting style on HN to avoid quick one-liners, but TDD is one of those topics that we've kicked around forever. Perhaps a one-liner would help clarify things. TDD is a coding practice to help the programmer understand that their mental model of the code does not reflect the actual code itself. That's it. There are some follow-ons, of course, like if your mental model is exactly in-line with the c…
Comment linking /cognition-versus-programming-the-big-two/
on “The Big TDD Misunderstanding”Submitted We don't 'do' learning. It does us as a story · 59 points
HN discussionHere you go: https://danielbmarkham.com/outlines-of-a-supercompiler-in-f/ Example implementations are also available for deeper inspection on GitHub. See link in article.
Comment linking /outlines-of-a-supercompiler-in-f/
on “Honest Microservices”Submitted Programming in Five Easy Pieces as a story · 44 points
HN discussionThe article you wrote on this is worth reading for anyone who missed it: https://danielbmarkham.com/the-overlords-finally-showed-up/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34126450
Comment linking /the-overlords-finally-showed-up/
on “The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI”Submitted Boyd's Management Model as a story · 36 points
HN discussionWe're going through an epistemological crisis the likes of which haven't been seen since Europe went through the dark ages. (Disclaimer: I just wrote about this and submitted the essay on HN https://danielbmarkham.com/the-overlords-finally-showed-up/ ) I agree with the author that nobody cares about whatever content you create, aside from your own marketing value and ability. At the same time, we've created huge ind…
Comment linking /the-overlords-finally-showed-up/
on “Nobody Cares About Your Blog”Submitted Cognition versus Programming: The Big Two – Why TDD? as a story · 28 points
HN discussionYup. I'm not going to argue with myself, but you are correct that this is a complex and fascinating topic that deserves more attention. Space constraints led me to vastly oversimplify. If you'd like more of a rebuttal/clarification, see https://danielbmarkham.com/epistemology-wars/ but by all means challenge my assumptions and premises.
Comment linking /epistemology-wars/
on “The Overlords Finally Showed Up”Submitted Code Budgets as a story · 22 points
HN discussionRelated essay: Negatives Stack, Positives Don't https://danielbmarkham.com/negatives-stack-positives-dont-a-...
Comment linking /negatives-stack-positives-dont-a-numberline-model-of-communication/
on “Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots”Submitted For the Love of All That's Holy, Use CCL to Control Complexity in Your Systems as a story · 21 points
HN discussionI wrote on this over the weekend in an essay titled "Forced Boredom" A lot of this is standard advice for various creators. I think, however, that it's possible to optimize yourself for the process. I find in my professional life and watching others that there are creative stages which are followed by forgetting these lessons, then re-learning them all over again. Humans are complex machines. Shameless plug: https:/…
Comment linking /forced-boredom/
on “Creation happens in silence”Submitted Code Smell: Primitive Obsession [video] as a story · 20 points
HN discussionSubmitted Random Word Generator in Bash as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted For the Love of All That's Holy, Use CCL to Control Complexity in Your Systems as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted A cool coding library I somehow overlooked – FSharpPlus as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted Fun with a Functional Programming Interview Question as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Honest Microservices as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted We've Been Doing It the Wrong Way as a story · 5 points
HN discussion