Killed by Worse is Better - What we can learn from the last time FP failed
summary
Argument: functional languages lose for adoption reasons not purity; concrete examples appear. Comparison of Lisp commercialization (LMI 3–4 engineers versus Symbolics 14) and failed Lisp machines, Haskell becoming a research lingua franca but suffering the Cabal treadmill and weak build tooling, and Go succeeding for ergonomics while a study finds 171 concurrency bugs with more than half tied to Go semantics. Anecdotal numbers like 10% to 2% to 1% fatality drops from handwashing show how simple operational changes beat theory. Claims, tools, counts, and which efforts actually worked determine value.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:31The functional programming debate
- 3:41Lisp and its legacy
- 6:03Unix and iterative design
- 12:23Drama in early Lisp history
- 17:12Haskell's research impact
- 22:15Golang's simple approach
- 24:36The human cost of error
- 31:29Practical industry solutions
- 35:19Refining industry standards
- 43:34Q&A session
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