Hillel
@hillelwayne.com
Formal methods, software history, chocolatiering. DMs open and happy to meet up in Chicago. Currently writing *Logic for Programmers* (out Q2 2026)
Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/hillelwayne/
Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/hillelwayne/
Finally trying to add Constraint Logic Programming to Logic for Programmers. As part of due diligence I also looked into Answer Set Programming... and now I'm not even sure if I want to cover CLP? ASP just seems like a much more important topic
January 9, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Finally trying to add Constraint Logic Programming to Logic for Programmers. As part of due diligence I also looked into Answer Set Programming... and now I'm not even sure if I want to cover CLP? ASP just seems like a much more important topic
TIL SQLite doesn't automatically enforce foreign key constraints. You gotta add `PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;`
January 8, 2026 at 7:46 PM
TIL SQLite doesn't automatically enforce foreign key constraints. You gotta add `PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;`
@obsidian.md has accomplished the impossible feat of being a knowledge management software I've stuck with for more than a month
January 8, 2026 at 2:14 AM
@obsidian.md has accomplished the impossible feat of being a knowledge management software I've stuck with for more than a month
TIL it's not true that "cake mixes added an egg so housewives would feel like they did something." They added an egg because eggless cake mixes sucked.
(To make housewives feel like they did something, companies suggested making multilayered frosted cakes with mixes)
www.snopes.com/fact-check/s...
(To make housewives feel like they did something, companies suggested making multilayered frosted cakes with mixes)
www.snopes.com/fact-check/s...
Requiring an Egg Made Instant Cake Mixes Sell?
Rumor: Instant cake mixes sold poorly until one food company decided to require the addition of a fresh egg to their product.
www.snopes.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:01 PM
TIL it's not true that "cake mixes added an egg so housewives would feel like they did something." They added an egg because eggless cake mixes sucked.
(To make housewives feel like they did something, companies suggested making multilayered frosted cakes with mixes)
www.snopes.com/fact-check/s...
(To make housewives feel like they did something, companies suggested making multilayered frosted cakes with mixes)
www.snopes.com/fact-check/s...
Clean coders would literally rather give functions misleading names than write informative comments
January 7, 2026 at 5:33 AM
Clean coders would literally rather give functions misleading names than write informative comments
Next month's version of Logic for Programmers (leanpub.com/logic/) is so far 46k words, making it the second longest individual work I've every written and on track to beat my longest individual work (A NaNoWriMo I did when I was twelve)
Logic for Programmers
The mathematics that will help you in your everyday programming.
leanpub.com
January 6, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Next month's version of Logic for Programmers (leanpub.com/logic/) is so far 46k words, making it the second longest individual work I've every written and on track to beat my longest individual work (A NaNoWriMo I did when I was twelve)
New year, new newsletter! This one's all about the Liskov Substitution Principle and how it applies to more than just object oriented programming!
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
The Liskov Substitution Principle does more than you think
It's more than just the L in SOLID!
buttondown.com
January 6, 2026 at 5:21 PM
New year, new newsletter! This one's all about the Liskov Substitution Principle and how it applies to more than just object oriented programming!
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
Last newsletter of the year! This one's light and just covers a few of the Fun Facts I know about software. Happy holidays and enjoy!
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
Some Fun Software Facts
Last newsletter of the year! First some news on Logic for Programmers. Thanks to everyone who donated to the feedchicago charity drive! In total we raised...
buttondown.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Last newsletter of the year! This one's light and just covers a few of the Fun Facts I know about software. Happy holidays and enjoy!
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
From now until the end of the year, you can get Logic for Programmers $10 off! Use the code `hannukah-presents` or just click this link: leanpub.com/logic/c/hann...
Logic for Programmers
The mathematics that will help you in your everyday programming.
leanpub.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:26 PM
From now until the end of the year, you can get Logic for Programmers $10 off! Use the code `hannukah-presents` or just click this link: leanpub.com/logic/c/hann...
BTW if you're in Chicago I'm speaking at the Cloud Computing Meetup Group tomorrow evening www.meetup.com/the-chicago-...
What Isn't Your System Supposed to Do?, Tue, Dec 9, 2025, 6:00 PM | Meetup
Building correct distributed systems takes thinking outside the box, and the fastest way to do that is to think inside a different box. One different box is "formal methods
www.meetup.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:19 PM
BTW if you're in Chicago I'm speaking at the Cloud Computing Meetup Group tomorrow evening www.meetup.com/the-chicago-...
Thanks to everybody who donated to the Feedchicago fundraiser! We raised a total of $2250 for @fooddepository.bsky.social. I donated last week to leverage a Giving Tuesday 2x match so it's $6750 total
December 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Thanks to everybody who donated to the Feedchicago fundraiser! We raised a total of $2250 for @fooddepository.bsky.social. I donated last week to leverage a Giving Tuesday 2x match so it's $6750 total
One more week to the `feedchicago` Logic for Programmers sale! Get the book for 50% off, and all royalties will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. We're already at 1600, let's try to hit 2000!
leanpub.com/logic/c/feed...
leanpub.com/logic/c/feed...
Logic for Programmers
The mathematics that will help you in your everyday programming.
leanpub.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
One more week to the `feedchicago` Logic for Programmers sale! Get the book for 50% off, and all royalties will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. We're already at 1600, let's try to hit 2000!
leanpub.com/logic/c/feed...
leanpub.com/logic/c/feed...
Help us feed Chicagoans who lost their SNAP benefits! Until the end of the month, buy Logic for Programmers with the coupon `feedchicago` to get 50% off. All royalties from the coupon will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository (@fooddepository.bsky.social) leanpub.com/logic/c/feed...
Logic for Programmers
The mathematics that will help you in your everyday programming.
leanpub.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Help us feed Chicagoans who lost their SNAP benefits! Until the end of the month, buy Logic for Programmers with the coupon `feedchicago` to get 50% off. All royalties from the coupon will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository (@fooddepository.bsky.social) leanpub.com/logic/c/feed...
Doom spiraled today, taking a short bsky break until I'm in a better place
October 25, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Doom spiraled today, taking a short bsky break until I'm in a better place
Being really into the Roman Empire is a major red flag, because you should be really into the Roman Republic instead
October 24, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Being really into the Roman Empire is a major red flag, because you should be really into the Roman Republic instead
Logic for programmers is now the 136th best-selling book on Leanpub! "Building Backbone Plugins", your days are NUMBERED
Logic for Programmers
The mathematics that will help you in your everyday programming.
leanpub.com
October 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Logic for programmers is now the 136th best-selling book on Leanpub! "Building Backbone Plugins", your days are NUMBERED
You can measure the economic value of something in Garfields. Garfield makes about 1 billion USD in revenue annually, so if an industry is smaller than that it's worth less to the world than Garfield
October 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
You can measure the economic value of something in Garfields. Garfield makes about 1 billion USD in revenue annually, so if an industry is smaller than that it's worth less to the world than Garfield
The three hardest problems in LaTeX are line breaks, page breaks, and tweaking fonts
October 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The three hardest problems in LaTeX are line breaks, page breaks, and tweaking fonts
In two hours (11:40 central time) I'll be speaking about designing distributed systems with TLA+ at #P99conf! It's a free virtual conference, so no excuses not to go :)
www.p99conf.io
www.p99conf.io
P99 CONF Event 2025 – All Things Performance On-Demand
P99 CONF is a cross-industry virtual event for _engineers_ and by engineers, centered around low-latency, high-performance design.
www.p99conf.io
October 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM
In two hours (11:40 central time) I'll be speaking about designing distributed systems with TLA+ at #P99conf! It's a free virtual conference, so no excuses not to go :)
www.p99conf.io
www.p99conf.io
Kinda listless today, got basically nothing done :/
October 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Kinda listless today, got basically nothing done :/
Reposted by Hillel
The New York Times recently introduced daily puzzles called Pips. You place the dominoes on the grid so the numbers satisfy the labels.
I solved Pips with cool software called a constraint solver. You give the constraints, e.g. "sum to 8", and it "magically" finds a solution. Let's look closer...
I solved Pips with cool software called a constraint solver. You give the constraints, e.g. "sum to 8", and it "magically" finds a solution. Let's look closer...
October 18, 2025 at 4:20 PM
The New York Times recently introduced daily puzzles called Pips. You place the dominoes on the grid so the numbers satisfy the labels.
I solved Pips with cool software called a constraint solver. You give the constraints, e.g. "sum to 8", and it "magically" finds a solution. Let's look closer...
I solved Pips with cool software called a constraint solver. You give the constraints, e.g. "sum to 8", and it "magically" finds a solution. Let's look closer...
After writing the last newsletter I did some experiments to see how well GPT5 would have written the same thing, and the answer is "not very".
Also I found the best real-world analogue to GPT5's writing style: quippy highscooler five paragraph essays
On the patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/gpt5-i...
Also I found the best real-world analogue to GPT5's writing style: quippy highscooler five paragraph essays
On the patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/gpt5-i...
GPT5 isn't very good at research essays | Hillel Wayne
Get more from Hillel Wayne on Patreon
www.patreon.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:20 PM
After writing the last newsletter I did some experiments to see how well GPT5 would have written the same thing, and the answer is "not very".
Also I found the best real-world analogue to GPT5's writing style: quippy highscooler five paragraph essays
On the patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/gpt5-i...
Also I found the best real-world analogue to GPT5's writing style: quippy highscooler five paragraph essays
On the patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/gpt5-i...
I've got a shiny new newsletter! "Modal editing is a weird historical contingency we have through sheer happenstance" continues my roasting of Vim in particular and modal editing in general. What can I say, hate your tools!
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
Modal editing is a weird historical contingency we have through sheer happenstance
If vi didn't exist, it would not have been invented.
buttondown.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I've got a shiny new newsletter! "Modal editing is a weird historical contingency we have through sheer happenstance" continues my roasting of Vim in particular and modal editing in general. What can I say, hate your tools!
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
I know this is bait (4/5 of his "good" games are shooters) but I love talking about videogames, so here's a list of videogames that gave me sublime experiences, that make videogames into something precious and special and worthy of respect. Screenshots when I 'got em
🧵
🧵
(honest question) what are the “good” video games? artistically i mean, not in a “i enjoyed this escapist slop” kind of way
Well. It's not Red Dead Redemption 2, but it's like one of three video games I'd genuinely consider good.
October 20, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I know this is bait (4/5 of his "good" games are shooters) but I love talking about videogames, so here's a list of videogames that gave me sublime experiences, that make videogames into something precious and special and worthy of respect. Screenshots when I 'got em
🧵
🧵
Is there any equivalent of www.thetorah.com for other religions, like Christianity or Islam? Basically a collaborative effort between religious authorities, academics, and historians to grappled with tough questions about Judaism, like "why is Channukah eight days when the miracle was only seven"
TheTorah.com - Academic Biblical Scholarship
Scholarship on the Torah portion, Jewish holidays, and questions of faith: Torah from Sinai, Torah from Heaven, Biblical criticism and Documentary Hypothesis.
www.thetorah.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Is there any equivalent of www.thetorah.com for other religions, like Christianity or Islam? Basically a collaborative effort between religious authorities, academics, and historians to grappled with tough questions about Judaism, like "why is Channukah eight days when the miracle was only seven"