Software, from First Principles

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• Hacker News
• > we are able to make the rock calculate

  I'm so tired of this cliche...

  a CPU is a rock about as much as much as an airplane is a rock (aluminium ore), "look, we are able to make rocks fly on their own power, isn't that awesome?"

  people using it think they are impressing the normies, but it just shows them being condescending "of course I dont believe rocks calculate, but I assume you are so stupid and know so little that you might actually believe me and be impressed by my people"

  by nok22kon
• You've completely missed the point of how silicon chips are organized rock, and have completely invented and projected a condescending view that no one actually intends.
  by jibal
• Actually, CPUs are made from highly purified silicon, which is commonly produced from silica found in quartz-rich sand; that silica ultimately comes from rocks.
  by llflw
• I would agree its a cliche but the intention here definitely isn't to be condescending. There's literally an image of the actual cpu below it - the rock thing is more of a metaphor and as any good metaphors, they can get tiring if you hear them a lot as you might do as someone working in the domain.
  by altmanaltman
• Hi, I understand your point. But my intention was just to create a sense of wonder that we have manipulated an inanimate thing to do useful things for us. I have only used it in the intro. In the rest of the article, i am only talking about actual ideas and concepts.
  by faza
• Great writeup! Love the diagrams.
  by armdave
• Congratulations! This is incredibly well done. Please consider creating a “part ii” that expands on the entire thread to one level of greater detail.
  by projectileboy
• Thanks, i am glad you liked it. Yes, i'm already working on more specialized articles. This was meant to be a broader article. You can see the planned articles here: https://fazamhd.com/mental-models/
  by faza
• > On the other hand, for those who understand these abstractions very well, AI agents are not a threat but a multiplier....

  It would be better without the editorializing.

  by jibal
• Hi, author here. Thanks for your feedback. I'll avoid doing it in my next articles. I'll try to keep it very natural, just like how i'll be explaining to my closest friends.
  by faza
• Excellent overview to give footing to anyone hovering at the higher levels of abstraction like myself. The interactive diagrams helped make some concepts click that were trickier to grasp from previous readings
  by marjipan200
• Glad it helped. This was my exact goal. I never found any book or anyone explaining all the foundations in a simpler way, either they were taught like textbooks or dumbed down with analogies. And at multiple occasions I couldn't find anything easier to follow, to share with my friends who were interested to understand computers and programming. Finally, I thought let me give it a try, let me write it in such a way I wished someone would introduce me to computers and programming for the first time. And I really enjoyed doing this, even I was able to find some gaps in my understanding.
  by faza
• This is an absolutely fantastic article. I read the whole thing this morning and as a frontend dev it really makes me appreciate how cool all the tech I'm using actually is.
  by solarity_studio
• Nice article! Having little interactive examples I think is fantastic, and makes the text really utilize it's medium well.

  The text was mostly a refresher for me who already knew the subject, but I would heartily recommend it to colleagues with less hardware know-how

  by Warwolt
• This is the book to read if you are interested in the topic: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/44882.Code
  by whobre
• Absolutely recommended! For more up to date content, a second edition was published in 2022.
  by bzzzt
• I liked this article. Richly illustrated and kept things interesting, even for a reader who is familiar with most of the material. Maybe too long for a single reading though, you might have better response by publishing in more digestable chunks. And I'd remove the AI messaging, it distracts from the main ideas.
  by lioeters
• Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for your feedback. I'll keep this in mind for my next articles and also improve this.
  by faza
• I really like the diagrams! This is a great way to show what happens deep down. A lot of engineers I know have very poor understanding of how software actually works. However a couple of things: - Theres a lot of text and not all of it is valuable - Hijacking the browsers "back" button is kind of annoying.
  by accurrent
• Hi, thanks for your feedback. Regarding the back button issue, that was an oversight from my part. I'll fix that.

  I am glad you liked the diagrams and simulations. I understand that it would have been better if the article was much shorter. I actually didn't want to leave any gaps in understanding or leave any important historical context. But i'll try to improve it.

  by faza