Video Review - Simple Made Easy

Who?

Presentation by Rich Hickey

What?

Presentation called "Simple Made Easy"

Where?

Can be watched here: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

When?

Video posted on October 20, 2011

The Gist

This is a video of a presentation that Rich Hickey gave about several important topics in programming.  He clarifies that "simple" means something is not tangled up or hard to understand, but "easy" means something is known or not far from our grasp.  Rich then shows examples in code of what things are simple versus what things are easy, and explains the advantages of making things clear and understandable and sometimes going against what programmers habitually do.

The Good

-I really liked the subject matter as I am constantly working in groups and I often find myself struggling to understand how certain code works because it is complex, or I think there would be a better way to do something.  I thought the presentation was great because Rich persuades programmers to simplify their code so it is easier to understand and so it makes everyone's lives easier.

-I thought Rich's statements about how if we always do what is "easy" and within our grasp, we will never learn and become smarter, and complex problems will always be outside of our skill set.  I thought this was interesting because I know I often try to find the easiest way to do something, yet as Rich said, I can be egotistical or afraid to admit that I cannot do something.

-I found the actual slides of the presentation to be well done and helpful.  For example, the chart of  specific things in programming that are complex vs simple was very relevant and helpful, and the graph of simplicity vs easiness was not difficult to grasp, but powerful.

The Bad

-The presentation was extremely dense, and although Rich had a lot of comedy in his presentation and I am a programmer myself, I still found the subject matter pretty dull to watch for an hour.

-Although in the beginning Rich explains the words he is going to use throughout the presentation, I still found myself a bit confused at points as to whether Rich was talking about "simple" or "easy" and exactly which one he was arguing for.

-I kind of wish Rich spoke a little bit more of how most programmers do things right and can continue to improve on those things instead of just pointing out problems in everything we do wrong.

The Questions

-Is there a way or method in which we can use things we already know very well to make an easy program that is also very simple and gives the user a great experience?  Wouldn't this be an ideal situation?

-If a program simply needs to be complex because there is no other way around it, what do we do then to minimize the unavoidable complexity?

-Is there a specific set of questions that we can ask ourselves when making decisions that will determine the complexity of our programs?  Can we teach newer programmers right off the bat to code in a specific way that will minimize complexity, so that all future programs are easy to understand?

My Review

Although I really liked the topics of this presentation and found the information incredibly helpful, it wasn't the most engaging, exciting, or interesting video.  I think it was as interesting a programming video as a programming video can be, but I don't think a programming video can really be that interesting.  I can definitely see why someone would recommend coders to watch this video because it is very relevant and encourages people to make their code both easier to understand, but also to make their user experience as good as possible.

6/10