
Joe Armstrong has died - okket
https://twitter.com/FrancescoC/status/1119596234166218754
======
alankay
What a wonderful spirit he was, never to be forgotten. We had lots of great
interactions over the years, and he greatly enriched computing with his ideas
and actions.

------
tombert
Years ago I emailed Joe Armstrong about concurrency stuff. I had no idea about
anything like multithreaded programming or distributed systems or anything
like that, but I had read Erlang was a language well-suited for that stuff.

I sent an email asking some seriously noobey questions about concurrency
(about why mutation was bad, what made the Actor model work, etc), and instead
of a response like "Go read a book and stop bothering me", he responded back
with an incredibly long, well-written email explaining a lot of the minutia of
how Erlang avoids a lot of pitfalls and generic concurrency theory. He was
really good about explaining things in a way simple-enough for me to
understand, without coming off as patronizing or rude.

About a year later I got a job doing Erlang, and I sent him another email
telling him this, saying something to the effect of "sorry for bothering you a
year ago, but your email was really helpful to me".

His response was basically "You have nothing to apologize for! I've always
thought it was important to help people asking questions, especially early in
their career".

I can honestly say that his kindness and patience changed my life for the
better. If he hadn't held my hand a bit to make distributed systems make sense
to me, there's a very high likelihood that I would still be writing Flash
applications for a Tae Kwon Do studio.

RIP Joe, you will be missed.

~~~
why-el
Same. Him and I discussed distributed storage. Well detailed response from him
that sent me reading for days. I aspire to be like him.

~~~
tombert
I would love to read that if you can find the emails. He always had a unique
perspective on this stuff.

------
jwatzman
Back in 2015, I somehow ended up as part of a panel discussion at the end of a
conference. The panel was going to include Joe Armstrong, Don Syme (inventor
of F#), Tony Hoare (!), and myself (a nobody compared to any of them). During
the conference, I wanted to meet each of the other folks on the panel, and
ended up in a somewhat lengthy conversation with Joe Armstrong -- mostly about
Erlang, but at some point the panel itself came up. I mentioned how nervous I
was; me, sitting on a panel with such other esteemed and brilliant folks -- of
course referring to _all_ of the other people on the panel, including Joe
Armstrong himself. I'll never forget his response: "yeah, me too! Wow, Tony
Hoare, seriously?!"

I'm not sure if he deliberately misunderstood me or not, but it definitely put
me more at ease, realising that there's always someone bigger, even for the
folks you see as bigger than you!

So sad to learn of his passing. RIP.

~~~
noblethrasher
Not at all hard to believe that he was sincere. He seemed to be pretty
starstruck when he was interviewing Alan Kay on stage just three years ago:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhOHn9TClXY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhOHn9TClXY).

~~~
codyb
And his twitter @joeerl [0] which I feel unfortunate to have just discovered
today is filled with him discovering emojis and dictation, talking up the joys
of letters, and discussing FPGAs.

It’s sad to hear of his passing, and rewarding to see he was just as kind and
curious as you could ever hope to be even just this month.

[0] - [https://mobile.twitter.com/joeerl](https://mobile.twitter.com/joeerl)

------
dpeck
That is so sad, he was in his late 60s and it seemed like he had a lot of life
left in him, talking about how software can get better and having a great (and
sometimes snarky) outlook on the profession.

Highly recommend his thesis (2003) and a few of his great
interviews/presentations for anyone who isn’t familiar with Joe, it captures a
lot of what he thought about and pushed for in his professional life.

[http://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf](http://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf)
[https://youtu.be/fhOHn9TClXY](https://youtu.be/fhOHn9TClXY)
[https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4](https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4)
[https://youtu.be/rmueBVrLKcY](https://youtu.be/rmueBVrLKcY)

I hope his family and friends can find some comfort in how much he was
appreciated and admired in the development community.

~~~
masklinn
> That is so sad, he seemed like he had a lot of life left in him talking
> about how software can get better and having a great (and sometimes snarky)
> outlook on the profession.

I'm in actual shock, he was tweeting about pretty much that (also brexit and
playing with his phone's voice recognition) just 2 weeks ago… He wasn't even
70…

~~~
pera
Yeah me too, he was also very active in the Elixir forum. RIP

~~~
mercer
He was even made admin just over a week ago :-/.

[https://elixirforum.com/t/introducing-our-new-moderators-
and...](https://elixirforum.com/t/introducing-our-new-moderators-and-a-new-
admin-joe-armstrong/)

------
ignoramous
Devastating.

I'd like to point out a recent tweet @joeerl shared [0][1] that contained
things he felt were good wisdom but lost over time:

\--

Ideas that we forgot:

1\. Flow based programming.

2\. Pipes.

3\. Linda Tuple Spaces.

4\. Hypertext (=/= HTML).

Computer Science 101:

1\. Observational equivalence.

2\. Isolation.

3\. Composition.

4\. Causality.

5\. Physics.

Two papers to read:

1\. The Emperor's Old Clothes - ACM.

2\. A Plea for Lean Software - Nikalus Wirth.

Two videos to watch:

1\. The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet - Alan Kay.

2\. Computers for Cynics - Ted Nelson.

Four old tools to learn: Emacs, Bash, Make, Shell.

Three books to read:

1\. Algorithms + Data Structure = Programs.

2\. The Mythical Man Month.

3\. How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Correct a typo:

?? Learn git -> locate program that creates page -> locate typo -> correct ->
send push [sic] request.

!! Select text -> type in correction -> people see change.

Two projects:

1\. Link to content hash not a name (request content by sha256, immune to
_pepole_ in the middle).

2\. Elastic Links (links should not break if you move an endpoint).

\--

Easily one of the best thinkers of his generation [2]. RIP.

[0]
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds19oHnXoAAwlAp.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds19oHnXoAAwlAp.jpg)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/embed/-I_jE0l7sYQ](https://www.youtube.com/embed/-I_jE0l7sYQ)

[2]
[https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/erlang/](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/erlang/)

~~~
revvx
Regarding the "!! Select text -> type in correction -> people see change.", he
was putting that in motion with his personal blog:

[https://joearms.github.io/](https://joearms.github.io/)

------
tosh
Just re-watched his Strangeloop talk: “The mess we’re in”. Still so spot on.
He will be dearly missed.

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4)

~~~
solipsism
Guess I'm alone in not seeing what's so good about this talk. He only presents
problems, and in an extremely disorganized way. The closest thing to a
solution is "wait, hardware advancement will eventually make your slow code
fast."

It's definitely entertaining, but that's about all I can give it.

~~~
mercer
There's a time and place for things. Posting multiple critical comments in a
commemoration thread is maybe not the best time or place, and better kept for
later?

~~~
solipsism
The post is about the talk, not the man. The comment is about the talk, not
the man.

I kind of doubt Joe Armstrong would support N days of mourning requiring
uncritical acceptance of everything he's ever done.

Joe called things like he saw them. I think we better honor him by doing the
same.

------
kozak
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Armstrong_(programmer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Armstrong_\(programmer\))

~~~
toomuchtodo
Would anyone be able to suggest a quality photo of Joe to use for his
Wikipedia page? I will be spending some time this weekend improving his page.

~~~
ignoramous
Joe's twitter gallery has a some nice ones that you might need to adapt for
wikipedia (not sure about the license, though):

1\.
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBs4Q53XkAI6yKd.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBs4Q53XkAI6yKd.jpg)

2\.
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAs_wqVXsAEvTor.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAs_wqVXsAEvTor.jpg)

3\.
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds19NLdXgAAMXho.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds19NLdXgAAMXho.jpg)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Thank you.

------
macintux
Absolutely devastating.

Joe was so full of life, consumed by curiosity. I had the pleasure of
escorting him around Chicago during an Erlang conference several years ago,
and I still have in my Reminders app to look up a water painter named Zorn
that he recommended highly as we tried to find our way to some building or
another.

He’s also, I believe, my only LinkedIn contact. I opened a new account a
couple of years ago when Basho was winding down, but I strongly dislike the
service and didn’t do anything with it...but when Joe found me and added me, I
had to approve that, obviously.

Godspeed Joe. I’m sure if the interface between this world and the next is in
need of debugging, you’re the man for the job.

~~~
estomagordo
Now is a good time to look up Anders Zorn. He was perhaps the most esteemed
Swedish painter during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

------
jah
One of my favorite quotes from Joe:

“Make it work, then make it beautiful, then if you really, really have to,
make it fast. 90% of the time, if you make it beautiful, it will already be
fast. So really, just make it beautiful!”

------
tzar
–Hello Mike

–Hello Joe

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKfKtXYLG78&t=2m7s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKfKtXYLG78&t=2m7s)

~~~
badosu
I rewatched this so many times:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbY3TMUcgQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbY3TMUcgQ)

~~~
vaylian
For context: This is the unofficial sequal to the official Erlang movie.
Updated for people from the future. Definitely worth a watch.

~~~
davidw
Many of his videos are worth a watch:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/gar1t/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/gar1t/videos)

The 'MongoDB is web scale' one is pretty funny and was widely watched shared
in the day.

I wish he'd make some more videos.

------
michaelfeathers
Last year, I was at a conference giving a talk about error handling and Joe
Armstrong was in the audience. I went through a bunch of strategies for
mitigation and handling of errors and Joe yelled from the back "just let it
crash! just let it crash!" I had to reply, "but we're not all using Erlang
yet."

------
feniv
I've only recently started learning Erlang (via Elixir), but I'm absolutely
amazed by the underlying technology and the brilliant minds behind it.

I'll remember Joe by the several insightful, entertaining talks he's given in
recent years.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4)
in particular.

------
davidw
Francesco is encouraging people to share their memories of Joe:

[https://twitter.com/FrancescoC/status/1119604272000315394?s=...](https://twitter.com/FrancescoC/status/1119604272000315394?s=19)

------
djhworld
This is devastating, RIP.

I watched this talk a few months ago
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmueBVrLKcY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmueBVrLKcY)
called "Computer Science - A Guide for the Perplexed"

It was superb, I think it's unfortunate that he had to rush through it because
of time constraints, his anecdotes and delivery were really engaging and
funny.

------
revvx
From the day I learned about his work he became my greatest influence in my
career, and still is to this day. I'm grateful for all the insights and the
perpetually fresh perspective, on distributed systems, on PL research, on
databases and on OOP.

I'm grateful that I have someone like him to look up to in my profession: able
to solve hard problems while still having fun with novel solutions, while
still keeping it all simple.

We'll take at least 20 years just to catch up with him.

------
mercer
I got really into Elixir/Erlang a while ago, and it made me love programming
again. One of the first 'useful' things I built was to scratch a personal
itch: tracking all the comments on HN that I've read and, with a bit of JS,
highlighting any new comments.

Erlang, OTP and Elixir were pretty new to me, and on top of that I built
everything in a rush. The code is messy, naive, and the whole thing barely
works. Over time I've added some other Applications (in the Elixir/Erlang
sense of the word) that scratch various other itches. Most of that code is
also pretty shit.

The fact that the whole thing has been chugging along for over a year, with no
restarts or crashing the entire system, is a regular reminder to me of
Armstrong and the "let it crash" philosophy. I sometimes log in to the server
and face a wall of red because the happy path wasn't followed, and instead of
having to fix the bug and start the thing up, I can just forget about it. Or I
fix the bug, enter recompile() in the interactive console, and get on with my
day.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that seeing how my duct-taped-together
contraption chugs along and keeps doing its job gives me a small sense of joy
every single time I SSH into the server, and it motivates me to get better at
all this so I can do the same on "MongoDB level web scale".

And it's not just Armstrong's work. His openness and participation on the
Elixir forums, his 'stamp of approval', so to speak, as well as his talks,
played a big role in my decision to get into Elixir/OTP.

------
dhuramas
A great loss to the community. Even though I don’t use Erlang, I’ve always
been enamored by it’s unique features.

Black Ribbon please.

~~~
1f60c
It seems like the black ribbon has now been added to the site.

~~~
em-bee
it would be nice if the black bar or some added keyword in the title could
link to this discussion thread to make it easier to find.

------
dberg
I met Joe in 2012 when I spoke at the Erlang Conf in SF. he is the reason I
discovered functional programming and the whole concept of message passing
(actor model) in distributed systems. Quite a legend and contributor to the
world of computer science. RIP joe.

~~~
imglorp
I also met him at a conference in '16\. He gave a talk but mostly wanted to
shoot the breeze in the hallway with fellow hackers. He lamented scheduling
gripes with his PM, being a slave to Jira, and some new things he was playing
with. Very approachable and humble.

He asked a few of us hanging around what talks we were thinking of attending
and we agreed to check out something about concurrency in some modernish
platform. The speaker was working on issues with handling failures, message
passing, memory management, etc, but then realized Joe was in the back and
pointed out it had all been solved many years ago by that guy over there.
Everyone laughed and gave Joe the acknowledgement.

I don't feel like we've finished learning from and building on his work. RIP.

------
rlander
This is devastating. I’m in shock. Joe was one of my programming heroes and it
was one of my goals to, one day, see one of his talks in person. He was
incredibly articulate, good-humored and didactic in his posts on the Erlang
list. He will be very much missed.

------
zaph0d_
This is absolutely devastating! His talk "The Mess We're In" was one of those
talks which were incredibly funny and informative at the same time. I
absolutely lost it, when he told the story of the single comment his coworker
put into the Erlang code.[1]

Rest in peace!

[1] [https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4?t=630](https://youtu.be/lKXe3HUG2l4?t=630)

------
apoorvgarg
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37wFVVVZlVU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37wFVVVZlVU)

This recent panel (Armstrong, Hewitt and Hoare) discussion on concurrency was
the first time I got to know about him and it gave me a lot of food for
thought.

------
diginux
RIP Joe. Every interaction I had with you in the past was always a great time.
You'll be missed, but never forgotten. Thanks for everything you've done for
the Erlang community and distributed systems design.

------
m2mdas2
5 or 6 years ago I saw a presentation of Joe in Infoq. There he said "solution
of the dining philosophers problem is to give fork to everyone". It really
made me interested in actor based system. Now here I am, building financial
system in java where akka is the vital component of the system. Thank you very
much Joe. Rest in peace.

------
armitron
Life is short and Joe went much younger than one would expect. When I find
myself doing something that I do not enjoy, I'm always trying to meditate to
the moment of my future-death in order to psychologically slap myself in the
face and re-evaluate what it is that I'm doing. We only get so many years and
we should strive to use them to the best of our ability and potential. Joe
Armstrong certainly did that. RIP.

------
namelosw
This is so sad. RIP Joe. I'll miss him so much.

Erlang is one of the most Perlis languages for me. I'm always a little bit
cynical and think Erlang deserve more attention. Several months ago Joe post
this tweet about a game company refused to tell other people they are using
Erlang.

[https://twitter.com/joeerl/status/1104298407231922176](https://twitter.com/joeerl/status/1104298407231922176)

I just watched his great talk last year not long ago - The Forgotten Ideas in
Computer Science:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I_jE0l7sYQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I_jE0l7sYQ)

------
dpapathanasiou
And it was just over ten years ago when Erlang took over the front page of
hacker news in a flash prank:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=512145](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=512145)

Unfortunately, I cannot find a screenshot or archived view now
(web.archive.org took a capture on March 10th, and not again until the 14th).

~~~
giancarlostoro
That is pretty awesome, and I love the fact he had to come back and say, no
seriously guys, I was just kidding, no need to flood Erlang. Man I swear
Erlang is highly underrated. I've not had the pleasure of building much with
it, only read through parts of the book by Joe and kept up with some of his
blogs and posts from time to time. Anybody who loves servers should really pay
attention to his work.

------
ipsum2
If people aren't aware, Joe's blog is full of interesting tidbits:
[https://joearms.github.io/#Index](https://joearms.github.io/#Index). I
remember reading this one in particular:
[https://joearms.github.io/#2015-03-12%20The%20web%20of%20nam...](https://joearms.github.io/#2015-03-12%20The%20web%20of%20names%2C%20hashes%20and%20UUIDs)

------
Existenceblinks
I remember his joke .. Erlang is "write once, run forever". Fascinating. The
BEAM will run forever since there are also other languages compiled to it.

------
sankoz
I was following him on Twitter, and it was always amazing that a genius like
him took the time to respond to people on Twitter with insightful comments.
Showed what a great human being he was. RIP Joe.

~~~
why-el
Not just that, but he also struggled in public with things we all struggle
with, often with incredible humor. His struggles with Grunt.js come to mind.
His humanity and charisma was in full force, and you can tell he worked in
full grace and gratitude. His work of course is a testament to this.

------
jacquesm
The one guy who knew how to turn software into actual engineering.

------
codr7
So long Joe, and thanks for coming here and doing your thing.

Erlang changed my way of thinking in several ways, a quick glance at some of
my own creations [0] makes that pretty obvious.

[0] [https://github.com/codr7/g-fu#tasks](https://github.com/codr7/g-fu#tasks)

------
accnumnplus1
The black bar usually indicates the passing of someone I'm not especially
familiar with. When I looked down the page and saw Joe's name I was really
caught off guard. I never met him but followed him and the Erlang scene long
enough to know we've lost someone special.

------
janvdberg
I only recently came across his Twitter account and started following him (he
had some interesting ideas about and experiments with TiddlyWiki). He seemed
like a passionate and enthusiastic technology lover, which was a good enough
reason to follow him.

And it is only just a few minutes ago that I discovered that Joe is the guy
with the moustache from the famous Erlang: The Movie video…. I had not pieced
those two things together.

So I knew nothing about his history, just one little thing he was working
on/interested in. That may make me seem ignorant, but I share this because it
goes to show that the light that shines in people like Joe was a genuine light
of curiosity and sharing. Bright enough to attract people like me.

------
dominicl
So sad. Humble, open minded genius. I was hugely impressed the first time I
learned about Erlang and impressed again when I saw how welcoming and open
minded he approached Elixir and it's community. A great man has left the
planet :-(

------
charlysl
I really like this talk of his, he was an amazing speaker: "Computing: The
first 100 years" [https://youtu.be/itKFrXghGuA](https://youtu.be/itKFrXghGuA)

------
rkachowski
rip joe. sorry that your last tweet was in reply to my trolling.

~~~
collinvandyck76
i just looked up this interaction. you seemed well intended enough :)

------
chj
This is a shock. I have been following his twitter and all is looking well.
Learned a lot from his erlang paper. Wish I had the courage to write him an
email and thank him. I can't believe it.

------
keymone
Erlang was the entry into functional paradigm that clicked with me. Thank you
Joe, for that and much more. RIP

------
plainOldText
Joe Armstrong was an exemplary hacker: passionate, practical, insightful.
Erlang is a testament to this.

He kept programming and tinkering until the very end.

He’s up there with Alan Kay, in my book.

Rest In Peace Joe. You’ll surely be missed.

------
hsavit1
We are all workers, and Joe was our Supervisor

------
lovehashbrowns
I'm another person that learned about Erlang through Elixir. Never got to talk
to Joe Armstrong in person. But I do want to acknowledge that his work with
Erlang, via Elixir, has given me the opportunity and hope of becoming an
entrepreneur this year. I'm thankful for what he has given to the world. Thank
you, Joe Armstrong, rest in peace. ️

------
wyatwerp
He sounded like a wonderful person in terms of ideas, communication & empathy.
I feel sadder than on the day Alan Kay passed.

To those with whom I share the morbid curiosity about how it happened, I'd
like to mention a movie ending that came to mind. Griever: Tell me how he
died. Friend: I will tell you how he lived.

~~~
alankay
Rumors of my passing have been greatly exaggerated!

~~~
alankay
P.S. Joe and I have had the most wonderful conversations, right up to a few
months ago. We'll miss him terribly and remember him vividly!

~~~
wyatwerp
Foot in mouth there! For that, I apologize as profusely as possible online.

P.S: FWIW, I was thinking of John McCarthy there, must have gotten confused by
recalling Joe Armstrong's interview with Alan Kay. I am also a big fan of Alan
Kay, landing up at Erlang's doorstep after playing a little with Squeak.

------
filleokus
I first learnt about Joe from this music video (based on Erlang: The Movie, I
believe):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1LjmDCOM-8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1LjmDCOM-8)

Afterwards looked up talks by him and was fascinated by Erlang, sad to see him
pass away.

~~~
pmarreck
Never saw this, love it!

------
brador
Anyone know what he died of/from?

~~~
rapsey
Since it was sudden, a stroke of some sort is generally the case.

~~~
bobowzki
He was normally very active on twitter but I noticed he hasn't posted since
the 10th of April, that's 10 days ago..

I guess it's only human nature to want to know what happened when someone you
admired suddenly passed away.

------
alexgaribay
This is incredibly saddening. Joe has left an incredible legacy for us to
continue on. I'm saddened that I never got to meet him and thank him for all
that he has done.

------
justinzollars
How we program multicores:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo5WL5IQAd0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo5WL5IQAd0)

------
thr0w__4w4y
I've known about Erlang for at least 20 years, but I never took the time to
learn about it.

After reading about it, and more importantly after reading user "tombert"'s
interaction with Joe Armstrong, I think I'm beginning to understand the
significance of our loss of him.

Godspeed, Joe. You set a high bar for many of us to aim for. Your patience,
kindness and desire to help and spread knowledge is truly inspirational.

------
alankay
What a wonderful spirit he was, never to be forgotten

------
johnzim
No! Without question one of the finest computer scientists I have ever met.
Fearlessly independent and willing to try anything and everything.

Edit: the thing I loved most about him was that he was brilliant but also
kind. A living breathing rebuttal to the idea that it’s alright to be an
asshole in this field if you’re smart enough.

There is no excuse in this world for meanness.

------
svrtknst
Sad to hear this. I've begun picking up some Erlang, mostly Elixir over the
past few years, and have watched (and watched and watched and re-watched) most
of his various (brilliant) talks, all of which are eye-opening.

Aside from his technical skill and knowledge, he seemed like a really gret
person with an undying sense of humor and humility.

~~~
endgame
And with you and others sharing stories of that humor and humility, it will
truly be undying.

------
ecthiender
This was really unexpected! I follow him on twitter and he was tweeting about
FPGAs, which seems like, only few days back!

I am grieved.

------
tlrobinson
Erlang was one of the first interesting languages I learned after the “basics”
(C, C++, Java, JavaScript, etc) and even though I never actually used it for
anything real, just learning it opened my eyes to a bunch of concepts that
have been useful over the years.

------
MagicPropmaker
One of the most charming, smart, funny, and well-rounded people I've ever met.

------
jacktang
RIP. Thank you for Erlang, the great programming language, it saves me a lot
of time. And thank you for the book: Programming Erlang. It guides me to think
the programming world in different, interesting, and simpler way.

------
uxcolumbo
Such sad news... he seemed like a real top bloke.

I've uploaded an image of him with the quote shared by Jah

[https://imgur.com/a/93X2hFG](https://imgur.com/a/93X2hFG)

------
ch4s3
What an incredible guy. I’ve interacted with him and Robert briefly on the
Elixir forums a few times, and I can’t think of anyone more giving, humble,
and insightful. His presence will truly be missed.

------
whitepoplar
Joe was such a kind person and was one of the few role models I had (I'm not a
role model type of person, so this is saying a lot). You'll be missed more
than you know, Joe. Rest in peace.

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tmountain
Truly heartbreaking. One of my favorite computer scientists of all time. Loved
his perspective on all things programming. So much wit, and such a vibrant and
wonderful guy. Joe, you will be missed.

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brightball
Joe had to be the most engaging, famous developer I’ve ever heard of. Very sad
day. He was so supportive of the Elixir community and a true blessing to the
people who were able to learn from him.

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isatty
Rest In Peace, Joe. I’m surprised and ashamed that I have not heard about him
but thanks to the HN community for posting links to his thesis and talks.
Wonderfully approachable and a great guy.

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tluyben2
Very sad. One of the few people who did not compromise on quality.

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Mugwort
Farewell Joe,

That we might be as good to others as you have been good to us and lead by
example.

RIP

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durandal1
Possibly the most influential person in my programming career. Always curious,
always full with ideas, but never lacking a pragmatic approach to the real
world.

------
jchristopherinc
You will be duly missed, Joe. Thanks for giving us Erlang.

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zubairq
Joe Armstrong's work on Erlang and OTP ended up inspiring a whole generation,
and now Kubernetes and Istio are very much based on his work

------
pjmlp
I always enjoyed watching his talks.

My feelings to friends and family.

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RickJWagner
Sad to hear this. I read the book and really enjoyed it. Joe's writing style
was humorous, informative and brief. We'll miss him.

------
kaonashi
Had the privilege of hearing him talk a couple times. While I didn't know him
personally, I will feel his absence.

------
tpl
A sad day indeed. I thank him and his coworkers for the platform I work with
day to day. He will be missed. RIP

------
pmarreck
I’m shocked by this.

Thank you for saving me from OOP, Joe. (via Elixir)

May your hypothetical soul have as much uptime as your systems did.

------
navyad
Hearing Joe's talks on various topics of computing are thrilling. Long live
Erlang and Elixir.

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wintorez
Unbelievable. Such a sad day.

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1f60c
Very sad. My condolences to his family, friends and everyone who knew him.

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anthony_doan
What the hell.

I'm so sad and shock. He just became mod at elixirforum.com

------
tomjen3
I am beginning to hate that black bar more and more.

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the_trapper
Thank you Joe for all of your contributions!

You will be missed.

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butterisgood
He’ll be missed!

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agumonkey
wow this one is sad.. why cosmos, why ?

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adamnemecek
World would be different without you.

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blockchainman
RIP JOE ! We will miss you !

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Jedi72
Goodbye, Joe.

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ykevinator
Who is he?

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garyhbutton
RIP

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flocial
This is indeed sad news (I feel he deserves the black bar of mourning once
confirmed). Although Elixir gets the most attention these days the solid
engineering of BEAM is the foundation that Elixir is built on.

~~~
jeremyjh
Joe was also a part of the Elixir community. He learned the language early on
and participated in the mailing list and forums. Actually, he had just very
recently become an admin at elixirforum.com. I will really miss him.

~~~
flocial
His "now for the tricky bit" talk was not only funny but thought provoking. He
was kind and very open minded. Thanks for pointing this out.

------
sjtgraham
Very sad news. Thank you to HN mods for commemorating Joe's passing with the
black bar. His contribution to our world is immeasurable. Although I never had
the pleasure of meeting him in person, by all accounts he was much loved. Joe
you will be missed.

~~~
mises
For those of us who haven't seen it before, would you please explain what this
means? I assume it is some sort of sign of mourning?

~~~
steveklabnik
It’s done any time someone “with significance to the community” dies. I’m not
sure when it started but it’s been a thing for many years.

Feels extremely appropriate to me, and honestly, it was the first thing I
looked for after I saw a tweet about this. RIP, Joe :(

~~~
_asummers
RIP Joe indeed. He will be sorely missed as a pillar of the BEAM community.

Not to diverge too far, but does anyone know who the first black bar was?

~~~
steveklabnik
I tried to use the search and couldn’t find anything authoritative.

