Top all-time · #933
The Third Bit
Personal blog · third-bit.comprogrammingcareer
The Third Bit is a personal blog at third-bit.com about programming and career. Since 2007, 73 different Hacker News readers have linked it 90 times, most often “Twelve Ways to Be Wrong About AI-Assisted Coding”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (22) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Greg Wilson's site for his programming-education writing, books such as Software Design by Example and How to Teach Programming, and talks on software engineering research.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 22 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Twelve Ways to Be Wrong About AI-Assisted Coding8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2026-05-21
- /sdxjs/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-01-17
- Software Design by Example4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-07-25
- Software Design by Example: Introduction2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-02-22
- /teaching/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-16
- Thinking Like a Programmer (2018)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-01-01
- Cathedrals, Bazaars, and in Between2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-01-05
- /blog/archives/4529.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-12-10
- I Want a Memory Diagram Generator2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-04
- Software Engineering's Greatest Hits2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-07-20
What Hacker News says?
As mentioned by others, the author Dr. Greg Wilson has written/compiled many books/tutorials which I can recommend. I would especially laud Software Design by Example [1][2], The Architecture of Open Source Applications [3] and Teaching Tech Together [4]. [1] https://third-bit.com/sdxpy/ (python version) [2] https://third-bit.com/sdxjs/ (js version) [3] https://aosabook.org/ [4] http://teachtogether.tech/
Comment linking /sdxjs/
on “SQL for data scientists in 100 queries”Submitted Git, Graphs and Software Engineering as a story · 110 points
HN discussionThis is from Greg Wilson ( https://third-bit.com ), co-editor of "The Architecture of Open Source Applications" and many other superb references. Edit: He wrote about this project here: https://third-bit.com/2024/02/03/sql-tutorial/
Comment linking /2024/02/03/sql-tutorial/
on “SQL for data scientists in 100 queries”Submitted Cathedrals, Bazaars, and in Between as a story · 67 points
HN discussionGreg Wilson writes about a useful tool for thinking about types of documentation [0] incorporating the novice-competent practitioner-expert framework. It looks like he was at least partly inspired by this article [1]. [0] https://third-bit.com/2019/08/08/documentation-types/ [1] https://third-bit.com/2018/10/18/four-forms-of-docs/
Comment linking /2018/10/18/four-forms-of-docs/
on “A Framework for Writing Better Documentation”Submitted Time Spent on Hardening as a story · 57 points
HN discussionGreg Wilson is more positive. Though he does agree that nobody cares. https://third-bit.com/2021/07/17/software-engineerings-great...
Comment linking /2021/07/17/software-engineerings-greatest-hits/
on “Software engineering research is a train wreck”Submitted Thinking Like a Programmer (2018) as a story · 56 points
HN discussionI build tools for teaching data science at DataCamp, so am really interested in this question! I think so, and suspect the ways in which a good language tutor assesses / recognizes where students can improve will have direct parallels for coding. Greg Wilson (who founded Software Carpentry) has a great collection of thoughts on learning to program in general: http://third-bit.com/
Comment linking /
on “How Do We Learn?”Submitted Simple rules for being a good research partner as a story · 8 points
HN discussionLink to the slides: https://third-bit.com/talks/greatest-hits/
Comment linking /talks/greatest-hits/
on “Software Engineering's Greatest Hits [video]”Submitted Installation-Driven Development as a story · 8 points
HN discussionIf anyone is interested in the scientific literature on learning, Greg Wilson has been writing a book based on Software Carpentry materials on how to teach programming, which cites a lot of the scientific literature, it's free here: http://third-bit.com/teaching/
Comment linking /teaching/
on “Study: Students did not benefit from studying according to “learning style””Submitted Technofascism as a story · 5 points
HN discussionA great recap of some papers: Software engineering's greatest hits. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrVtA-ue-x0 * slides: https://third-bit.com/talks/greatest-hits/#1
Comment linking /talks/greatest-hits/
on “Ask HN: Best empirical papers on software development?”Submitted An Exchange with DataCamp as a story · 5 points
HN discussionOther DataCamp employees did "sit down like adults" and talk about it. https://dhavide.github.io/a-note-to-our-commuity-on-building... http://third-bit.com/2019/04/15/an-exchange-with-datacamp.ht... They got fired because of it.
Comment linking /2019/04/15/an-exchange-with-datacamp.html
on “On DataCamp and sexual misconduct”Submitted Seven Ways to Think Like a Programmer as a story · 4 points
HN discussionExcept that it hasn't been shown to work better. Quoting from http://third-bit.com/blog/archives/4529.html : "If you ask its advocates for evidence, they’ll tell you why it has to be true; if you press them, you’ll be given anecdotes, and if you press harder, people will be either puzzled or hostile." Oh good, evidence against is just as preachy and unscientific as the evidence for. http://evidencebasedse.com/?q=tax…
Comment linking /blog/archives/4529.html
on “How deep are your unit tests?”Submitted Rules for supervising projects as a story · 4 points
HN discussion"... because it works better..." Except that it hasn't been shown to work better. Quoting from http://third-bit.com/blog/archives/4529.html : "If you ask its advocates for evidence, they’ll tell you why it has to be true; if you press them, you’ll be given anecdotes, and if you press harder, people will be either puzzled or hostile." There is very little research which shows that TDD is better than other approaches.…
Comment linking /blog/archives/4529.html
on “How deep are your unit tests?”Submitted Sex and Drugs and Guns and Code as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou might want to take a look at " How to Teach Programming "[0]. Bonus: A talk entitled " What We Actually Know About Software Development, and Why We Believe It's True "[1]: [0]: http://third-bit.com/teaching/ [1]: https://vimeo.com/9270320
Comment linking /teaching/
on “Ask HN: I'm teaching my wife to code. What direction should we go?”Submitted Software Design by Example as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe Software/Data Carpentries focus intensely on these matters, and their founder Greg Wilson continues to work on them: https://carpentries.org http://third-bit.com
Comment linking /
on “Incentivizing healthy group dynamics in classes (2012)”Submitted What I Would Change in Lox for Teaching (2022) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionGreg Wilson has a couple of books on this: - " How to Teach Programming (And Other Things) "[0] - " Teaching Tech Together ", newer edition of aforementioned book.[1] These books delve into how to conduct lessons, what to concentrate on, what to optimize for, how to construct quizz questions with embedded diagnostic capability so you not only see who gets it wrong or right, but on which concept/part they get it wron…
Comment linking /2017/05/31/how-to-teach-programming.html
on “Ask HN: Learning How to Teach”Submitted Why Web Literacy? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionPlease take a look at the work Greg Wilson did on the matter. There's a book entitled " How to Teach Programming (And Other Things) [0]", and a second book entitled " Teaching Tech Together [1]" [0]: http://third-bit.com/2017/05/31/how-to-teach-programming.htm... [1]: http://teachtogether.tech/en/
Comment linking /2017/05/31/how-to-teach-programming.html
on “Ask HN: (CS Lecturers) How do you make class interesting?”Submitted Why We Built "The Architecture of Open Source Applications" as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
