Ask HN: What are some 'must watch' talks? - CSMastermind
======
patio11
If you like the business of running software companies, these are probably my
two favorite business-oriented talks ever:

Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death (Gail Goodman):
[http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-
constant-...](http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-
contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/)

Wide-ranging; covers why SaaS companies are brutally difficult to build and
how ConstantContact very gradually achieved escape velocity while on the
titular long slow SaaS ramp of death and eventually got to the fabled
hockeystick growth land.

Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped [Software] Business (Jason Cohen):
[https://vimeo.com/74338272](https://vimeo.com/74338272) Jason presents a
framework for how to find a product which will get you to $10k in monthly
recurring revenue.

(If you liked these two talks and just want More Like That Please go to the
Microconf video page and queue up every talk by Rob Walling, preferably in
order.)

And, on an entirely different subject, Developers, Entrepreneurs, and
Depression (Greg Baugues): [http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/11/developers-
entrepreneu...](http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/11/developers-
entrepreneurs-depression-a-wonderful-talk-at-business-of-software-conference/)

------
jerrytsai
"Don't Talk to the Police"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE)
This talk was an eye-opener for me and an indictment of the U.S. "justice"
system. You can't presume you'll be treated fairly, considered not a suspect,
etc.

And, as mentioned by keyanp, Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture". Vita brevis. Carpe
diem.

------
keyanp
Very surprised it hasn't already been mentioned, but Randy Pausch's "Last
Lecture" is fantastic (although not technical):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo)

~~~
cableshaft
Just rewatched this. I was thinking "I remember this having a major effect on
me emotionally last time, why isn't it this time?", then I got to the end, and
it reminded me. Oh boy. Still choked up.

------
danielvf
Rich Hickey's talk on simplicity is a must watch.

[https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-
Easy](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy)

And one of the most useful talks of all time for building organizations is by
Ed Catmull (of Pixar)

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc)

~~~
michaelsbradley
I saw _Simple Made Easy_ live, in person, in Saint Louis (where I live), back
in Fall 2011. I remember the experience very well ~ forever changed the
trajectory of my personal and professional efforts at software development.

I was so under-exposed to non C-family languages at the time that I asked the
guy next to met whether the code used to demo the ideas "was Haskell or
something else?" I felt embarrassed at the shocked look on his face; my grand
exploration of Clojure (and other functional languages too!) began shortly
thereafter. The previous evening, I'd accidentally had dinner with Dr. Gerald
Sussman... what a conference, what an experience was Strange Loop 2011!

[+]
[https://thestrangeloop.com/2011/sessions.html](https://thestrangeloop.com/2011/sessions.html)

~~~
lewisl9029
The Front End Architecture Revolution by David Nolen is one of my all-time
favorites, and was probably the biggest single influence on the trajectory of
my own development career:
[http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/61483785](http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/61483785)

------
geoffpado
I'm a particular fan of Bret Victor's "The Future of Programming". [1] It's a
great look at the amazing number of ideas that the CS world has come up with
and how we might be able to improve the act of building programs, even from
"old" ideas.

[1] [https://vimeo.com/71278954](https://vimeo.com/71278954)

~~~
kevinSuttle
One of my all-time favorites as well. Pretty much any of his talks are
legendary.

------
pizza
Mark Fisher's talk about how capitalism makes it seem like the only game in
town [0]

David Pearce on abolishing suffering [1]

Jurgen Schmidhuber "Universal AI and a formal theory of fun" [2]

Slavoj Žižek on "signs from the future" \- also ties into [0] a bit because at
one point he mentions how excess capital was found to actually _reduce_ the
efficiency of certain creative tasks [3]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deZgzw0YHQI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deZgzw0YHQI)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCb9sk6CTc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCb9sk6CTc)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnbZzcruGu0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnbZzcruGu0)

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

~~~
griffinmmahon
Žižek on green consumerism is quite good as well, I find myself constantly
thinking of it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g).

~~~
pizza
Yes! I agree with him a lot that environmentalists today are _too_
conservative - in the insistence that preternatural human effects on the
environment can only be disturbing or jeopardize ecosystems. But, like Žižek
likes to say: what if the opposite were true? What if we should instead aim
for more radical reinterpretations of our relationship with nature, and to
instead make ourselves _more_ artificial, while also better stewards of nature
- like Elon Musk's vision of humans as being a multiplanetary civilization, or
getting people to realize that junk is not a disease, but a symptom of a
system that enables mass rearranging of junk-substrate.

------
wunderg
The Birth & Death of JavaScript.

A talk by Gary Bernhardt.

[https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-
death...](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death-of-
javascript)

~~~
steinuil
His other talks are great too! My favourite is "A Whole New World".
[https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks](https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks)

------
ellism
Guy Steele's talk, "Growing A Language", is very good:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0)

~~~
kaeluka
Yes, essential viewing!

------
summerdown2
Mike Monteiro on the importance of a contract: "Fuck you, pay me."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3RJhoqgK8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3RJhoqgK8)

~~~
lstroud
Got him to admit to me that he exaggerates for "effect" in the talk.

Personally, I see "exaggerating for effect" as dishonest. Manipulating facts
in order to generate a response is manipulation.

~~~
kaeluka
It's a pep talk. Nothing wrong with that, IMO.

------
F_J_H
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action - start with Why

[https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...](https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action)

------
shahocean
Sir Ken Robinson's talk on Do schools kill creativity? Its worth watching.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_cre...](https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity)

~~~
posterboy
I didn't like the conclusion that switching to a school was a solution that
supports a specific kind of creative activities, because the example was not
convinving. A Dance Carreer is famous for competition so much so it was
featured as a storyline on the Simpsons. OTOH the school might just have been
exceptional, but then it proofs nothing. Edit: Still, I like that the problem
is interesting enough for the talk to become prominent.

~~~
andrei_says_
While I agree with all of the above, I think the talk was masterfully crafted
for success. I doubt it would've been nearly as successful without the mention
of a mega celebrity or if it recommended unschooling.

Honestly I'd rather have 5+ million people or whatever the view count get
exposed to thinking which puts school structure into question than have a talk
providing better solutions.

------
bluetomcat
"The Mess We're In" by Joe Armstrong:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXe3HUG2l4)

"Normal Considered Harmful" by Alan Kay:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvmTSpJU-
Xc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvmTSpJU-Xc)

------
seanccox
John Cleese's talk on creativity is both funny and inspirational, and it's
become a key part of how I approach creative projects and how I encourage
people to explore their own creativity:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPvvPTQaMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPvvPTQaMI)

------
james_niro
Steve Jobs commencement speech

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA)

------
steinuil
Mike Acton's Data-oriented Design is definitely a must.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX0ItVEVjHc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX0ItVEVjHc)

------
shazzy
"Black History":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUtAxUQjwB4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUtAxUQjwB4)
-

Probably the best, most eye opening talk on any topic, but especially on the
roots of institutionalised racism, and perhaps the cause of a lot of issues
today.

It is by "Akala", an English rapper, poet, and journalist at the Oxford Union
and is is a shining example that you can gain a great amount of knowledge, if
you are only willing to.

If you liked the Netflix documentary "13th" you will like this.

------
f00_
Richard Hamming: You and Your Research
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw)

(All the recordings from "Intro to The Art of Doing Science and Engineering:
Learning to Learn" are amazing)

~~~
f00_
also:

Alan Kay: "OOPSLA 1997 - The computer revolution hasnt happened yet"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKg1hTOQXoY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKg1hTOQXoY)

and +1 to anything by bret victor

------
Synaesthesia
Noam Chomsky on Power and Ideology and the Myth of American Exceptionalism
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_X5czMVKT8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_X5czMVKT8)

Transcript:
[http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/22/noam_chomsky_on_the_my...](http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/22/noam_chomsky_on_the_myth_of)

------
snarfy
Hans Rosling: The best stats you've ever seen.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen)

------
flaviocopes
David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY)

------
Ace17
"7 minutes, 26 seconds, and the fundamental theorem of Agile Software
Development", by JB Rainsberger. It's short and straight to the point.
[https://vimeo.com/79106557](https://vimeo.com/79106557)

------
woz
Neil Gaiman's commencement speech at The University of Arts. Intended for arts
students, but it's by far the most inspirational speech I've ever seen

[https://youtu.be/ikAb-NYkseI](https://youtu.be/ikAb-NYkseI)

------
wyclif
_Linus Torvalds on git_
[https://youtu.be/4XpnKHJAok8](https://youtu.be/4XpnKHJAok8)

------
kchauhan
May be this question's answers help you -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12637239](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12637239)

~~~
CSMastermind
Amazing - thank you.

------
keane
What Makes Us Uniquely Human? by Erwin McManus:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BdgVfhciSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BdgVfhciSw)

------
hedwall
Richards Cooks How complex systems fail from velocity a couple of years ago
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0k12uZR14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0k12uZR14)

and the paper that's the basis for it is also nice to have handy
[http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/How%20Complex%20Sys...](http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/How%20Complex%20Systems%20Fail.pdf)

------
kfe
Dan Ariely: "Predictabily Irrational" [https://youtu.be/VZv--
sm9XXU](https://youtu.be/VZv--sm9XXU)

------
willemlabu
This changed my perception of stress and pressure, and then, in consequence,
my life as a dev.

[https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress...](https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend)

It's worth listening to if you're in a high pressure environment, or struggle
with stress.

~~~
nagarch
Good one

------
srigi
Ben Orenstein - Refactoring from Good to Great (Aloha Ruby Conf 2012)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC-
pQPq0acs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC-pQPq0acs)

This really changes the way you look into your OOP code. Please watch even if
you're not a Ruby programmer.

------
ivan_ah
These are interesting sources of inspiration from which I learned a lot about
marketing:

\- Building the minimum Badass User (make your users awesome) by Kathy Sierra:
[https://vimeo.com/54469442](https://vimeo.com/54469442)

\- Start with the Why? by Simon Sinek (then How? and finally What?):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYeCltXpxw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYeCltXpxw)

\- Good design doesn't sell itself by Mike Monteiro:
[https://vimeo.com/121082134](https://vimeo.com/121082134)

------
bprasanna
Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8)

------
wyclif
_The computer revolution hasn 't happened yet_ by Alan Kay
[https://youtu.be/oKg1hTOQXoY](https://youtu.be/oKg1hTOQXoY)

------
Perceptes
J.B. Rainsberger — Integrated Tests Are a Scam:
[https://vimeo.com/80533536](https://vimeo.com/80533536)

------
wyclif
_The call to learn_ by Clifford Stoll
[https://youtu.be/Gj8IA6xOpSk](https://youtu.be/Gj8IA6xOpSk)

------
johnnycarcin
Hacker Fundamentals and Cutting Through Abstraction:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSuq3Ry9PLQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSuq3Ry9PLQ)

Not an earth shattering talk or anything (and the title isn't super accurate)
but the idea and message that is being presented is something I think people
in our world need to be reminded of.

------
Dowwie
Jim Carey's 2014 commencement speech at the MUM:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80-gPkpH6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80-gPkpH6M)

Jim reveals his depth in this talk. Here's one of the gems you'll hear:

"You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on
doing what you love"

------
kaishiro
Dan Pallotta's Ted Talk on charity - "The Way We Think About Charity is Dead
Wrong"

[https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_abou...](https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong)

Wildly changed my worldview with regard to charities.

------
Carducci
Developing Expertise: Herding Racehorses, Racing Sheep ::
[https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Developing-Expertise-
Dav...](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Developing-Expertise-Dave-Thomas)

Talk by Dave Thomas which gives a interesting look at software engineering
expertise.

------
Tomte
Robert Sapolsky on depression.

Fantastic talk on both the biological-neurological and the psychological side.

------
nottorp
Supplementary question: which of those "talks worth watching" have a
transcript?

------
andrei_says_
Sandy Metz has a few great talks on OO programming.

I highly recommend Nothing is Something but all are great.

[https://confreaks.tv/presenters/sandi-
metz](https://confreaks.tv/presenters/sandi-metz)

------
Mahbubur-Rahman
Probably his last lecture at MIT [http://mashable.com/2013/07/14/amar-bose-
dead/](http://mashable.com/2013/07/14/amar-bose-dead/)

------
novorool
David Heinemeier Hansson - How reliance on luck can undermine productivity?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ISOSyr_dMU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ISOSyr_dMU)

------
novorool
David Heinemeier Hansson - How to create a profitable startup company?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY)

------
satyajeet23
Highly recommended!
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs:_The_Lost_Intervi...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs:_The_Lost_Interview))

------
andrei_says_
Nell Shamrell's talk on regex
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TMV3LrNG6-w](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TMV3LrNG6-w)

You know you want to know how it works ;)

------
wyclif
_This is what happens when you reply to spam email_ by James Veitch
[https://youtu.be/_QdPW8JrYzQ](https://youtu.be/_QdPW8JrYzQ)

------
sjakobi
Conal Elliott on denotational design:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmKYiUOEo2A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmKYiUOEo2A)

------
wyclif
_Computer Architecture Essentials_ by James Reinders
[https://youtu.be/yOa0WpMwzWk](https://youtu.be/yOa0WpMwzWk)

------
sayelt
The mind behind Linux | Linus Torvalds

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8NPllzkFhE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8NPllzkFhE)

~~~
cyberjunkie
I didn't expect to like it. But despite his slight nervousness, his simplicity
and his brutal honesty and self-criticism resonated well with me.

Really good, no-nonsense talk. Good watch!

------
MK999
Does anyone have a link to the talk something along the lines of ~'the power
of stupid ideas' \-- the beginning was about this shop that petitioned the
London bus authority to move the bus stop closer to this shop to create a
virtual wall. I only saw half of it and I'd like to see the other half.

