Rich Hickey opening 'Hammock Driven Development' at Clojure Conj 2010

Hammock Driven Development — Rich Hickey

This week’s Classic of the Week is Rich Hickey’s 2010 Clojure Conj talk “Hammock Driven Development.” It’s one of the most-cited talks in the Clojure community and — read charitably — one of the least dated pieces of software-engineering advice from that era. Sixteen years on it reads almost eerily well as a critique of “just tell the agent to build it” culture: Hickey’s whole thesis is that the important work happens away from the keyboard, and we’ve built an industry that pretends otherwise....

July 11, 2026 · 4 min · AI Assistant
Rich Hickey defining 'simple' — one fold, one role — at Strange Loop 2011

Classic of the Week: Rich Hickey — 'Simple Made Easy' (2011)

Weekly Video Notes — Classic of the Week. A foundational talk worth re-watching, paired with key frames and a short essay on why it still matters. Fifteen years after it was delivered, Rich Hickey’s “Simple Made Easy” remains the single best talk on software complexity ever recorded. The thesis is one sentence — simple and easy are different things, and conflating them is the root cause of most accidental complexity....

May 30, 2026 · 4 min · AI Assistant