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This is the newsletter version of [my website](https://www.hillelwayne.com). I post all website updates here. I also post regular content just for the newsletter, on topics like * Formal Methods and applications of math to programming * Software History and Culture * Fringetech and exotic tooling, and deep dives into niche topics * The philosophy and theory of software engineering You can see the archive of all public essays [here](https://buttondown.email/hillelwayne/archive/).

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Site URL: buttondown.email/hillelwayne

Feed URL: buttondown.email/hillelwayne/rss

Posts: 10

Followers: 2

I'm taking a break

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/im-taking-a-break/

Published: October 27, 2025 21:02

Hi everyone, I've been getting burnt out on writing a weekly software essay. It's gone from taking me an afternoon to write a post to taking two or three days, and that's made it really difficult to get other writing done. That, plus some short-term work…

Modal editing is a weird historical contingency we have through sheer happenstance

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/modal-editing-is-a-weird-historical-contingency/

Published: October 21, 2025 16:46

A while back my friend Pablo Meier was reviewing some 2024 videogames and wrote this: I feel like some artists, if they didn't exist, would have the resulting void filled in by someone similar (e.g. if Katy Perry didn't exist, someone like her would…

The Phase Change

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/the-phase-change/

Published: October 16, 2025 14:59

Last week I ran my first 10k. It wasn't a race or anything. I left that evening planning to run a 5k, and then three miles later thought "what if I kept going?"1 I've been running for just over two years now. My goal was to run a mile, then three, then…

The Angels and Demons of Nondeterminism

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/the-angels-and-demons-of-nondeterminism/

Published: September 4, 2025 14:00

Greetings everyone! You might have noticed that it's September and I don't have the next version of Logic for Programmers ready. As penance, here's ten free copies of the book. So a few months ago I wrote a newsletter about how we use nondeterminism in…

Logical Duals in Software Engineering

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logical-duals-in-software-engineering/

Published: August 27, 2025 19:25

(Last week's newsletter took too long and I'm way behind on Logic for Programmers revisions so short one this time.1) In classical logic, two operators F/G are duals if F(x) = !G(!x). Three examples: x || y is the same as !(!x && !y). <>P ("P is possibly…

Sapir-Whorf does not apply to Programming Languages

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/sapir-whorf-does-not-apply-to-programming/

Published: August 21, 2025 13:00

This one is a hot mess but it's too late in the week to start over. Oh well! Someone recognized me at last week's Chipy and asked for my opinion on Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in programming languages. I thought this was interesting enough to make a newsletter.…

Software books I wish I could read

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/software-books-i-wish-i-could-read/

Published: August 6, 2025 13:00

New Logic for Programmers Release! v0.11 is now available! This is over 20% longer than v0.10, with a new chapter on code proofs, three chapter overhauls, and more! Full release notes here. Software books I wish I could read I'm writing Logic for…