HackerThematic readings
Choose a field, follow a question across talks and replay the passages behind each interpretation.
In this edition
How do you update on evidence—and choose what to ask next? →A test result and a Wordle clue both rule out possibilities. The crucial difference is whether you already know the result or still have to choose the question.What is missing from a picture of brightness? →Follow rotating hands, short tones and holographic exposures to separate three questions: what is in a wave, what the observation window permits, and what the instrument actually records.Why do tests pass when the program is wrong? →Gary Bernhardt’s isolated tests and Andrej Karpathy’s neural network both deliver good news when the code is wrong.
Browse by field
5 readingsHow do you know the system got it right? →Start with the kind of evidence you need: the inputs, the code or the measure of success.4 readingsSoftware boundaries and change →Follow a change or a failure across rules, state and callers.2 readingsThe limits of programming languages →From anonymous recursion to parsers: compare what a language can express with what it can guarantee.4 readingsLearning signals and model behavior →Follow the evidence from a training update to a deployment decision. Separate what was learned from what was measured.6 readingsRepresentation, intuition and feedback →Represent the same problem a second way and inspect what becomes visible or easier to explain.