Functional Mechanical Sympathy [video]

Functional Mechanical Sympathy [video]youtube.com

65 points•surprisetalk•5 days ago•11 comments•

#sympathy #functional #mechanical #video #functional mechanical #mechanical sympathy #functional mechanical sympathy

11 comments

Yep, been leveraging immutability for years now to avoid nasty race conditions on our performance-sensitive services. It's a game-changer.

xyzsparetimexyz3 days ago

Since when did optimization get called 'mechanical sympathy' wtf? I hate the term

jalk3 days ago

Since 2011 according to this: https://martinfowler.com/articles/mechanical-sympathy-princi...

beastman823 days ago

100% right.

Martin Fowler cited Martin Thompson of LMAX who cited Sir Jackie Stewart of Formula One

my-next-account3 days ago

Race driver Jackie Stewart supposedly said “You don't have to be an engineer to be a racing driver, but you do have to have mechanical sympathy.”. Makes sense, to me, the race car is probably a bit closer to the way you'd treat your horse or something, to a driver.

Anyway, that's where we get the term from.

ElevenLathe3 days ago

"Probably any one of the boys from the Palace Flophouse could have made the truck run, for they were all competent practical mechanics, but Gay was an inspired mechanic. There is no term comparable to green thumbs to apply to such a mechanic, but there should be. For there are men who can look, listen, tap, make an adjustment, and a machine works. Indeed there are men near whom a car runs better. And such a one was Gay"

^one of my favorite excerpts from my one of my favorite novels, Steinbeck's /Cannery Row/

wood_spirit3 days ago

I like the term. It’s a good way to think about programs and data structures etc.

xyzsparetimexyz3 days ago

I will never have either sympathy or empathy for a machine.

apefulsin3 days ago

Perhaps it's more to do with Muratori-style non-pessimization

Edit: Ha! It was mentioned by name in the questions section.

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

11 comments

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