LambdaConf 2015 - The Abstract Method, In General   Gershom Bazerman
Channel: Confreaks
Date: 2015-12-31

“Programming is about abstraction.” But what is abstraction about? Surely not just programming. Why do we need it, why do we keep reinventing it? How do we even recognize it when we see it, across so many domains? When something is more abstract, it is not necessarily more useless, even though, definitionally, it is further removed from any specific use. How can that even be the case? Too often, when we teach functional programming, we are met with the response “you have taught me some abstractions, but not what they are good for.” Certain realms of mathematics, such as category theory, often elicit similar responses. This talk is an investigation into how to consider not only abstractions, but the process of applying them.

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