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A Philosophy of Software Design | John Ousterhout | Talks at Google

Talks at Google · talk · Watch on YouTube

Software architecture & designTech pioneers & interviews

What it is

John Ousterhout, Stanford professor and creator of Tcl, presents the ideas of his book A Philosophy of Software Design in a Talks at Google session. He covers managing complexity, deep modules and interfaces, and what he teaches in his Stanford software design course.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN treats it as the standard one-hour teaser for the book and recommends it for its deep-modules thinking before buying or reading the book.

  • 11 people recommended it
  • 10 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “I have watched his Talks at Google talk on the topic [1] a couple of times (1 hour), highly recommended.”

    One-hour talk on the book's ideas, worth rewatching.

    EdwardCoffin, 2019-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Programming Books You Wish You Read Earlier”

  2. “I highly recommend A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout. His talk is a great teaser for the book”

    Great teaser for the book on simplicity and deep modules.

    loup-vaillant, 2023-01 · Strong recommendation

  3. “This google talk is a condensed version of the (already small - 150 pags IIRC) book. I highly recommend both.”

    Condensed version of a short book that beats Clean Code.

    devnonymous, 2024-07 · Strong recommendation · in “A brief interview with Tcl creator John Ousterhout (2023)”

  4. “John Ousterhout's talk [1] on deep interfaces was transformational for me.”

    Ousterhout's talk on deep interfaces.

    pcwelder, 2026-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Parse, Don't Validate (2019)”

  5. “you might dig his “Philosophy of Software Design”[0] book, or talks associated with it[1]”

    Talk associated with Ousterhout's software design book.

    bch, 2020-01 · Recommendation · in “Who Says Tcl Rules?”

  6. “this presentation from professor John Ousterhout on the book was pretty good”

    Ousterhout's presentation on his software design book.

    ignoramous, 2020-05 · Recommendation · in “In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm (2014) [pdf]”

  7. “in the talk he gave at Google about the book [1] he describes the course he teaches that was the inspiration for the book”

    Ousterhout describes the Stanford course that inspired the book.

    code_biologist, 2020-05 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Best books under 200 pages for developers?”

  8. “He's done a talk[0] about it if you want a taste before buying.”

    Talk as a taste of the book before buying.

    bear8642, 2022-05 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: How did you learn good program design?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: deep modules, complexity, abstraction, john ousterhout, api design

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