I really enjoyed the 'Four Algorithmic Journeys' Lecture series by Stepanov. (actually theres only 3 journeys) It is a combination of teaching your some basics of developing (generic) Algorithms, basic abstract algebra, and some (not always super accurate) history of mathematics.<p>1. The first journey starts with an ancient Egyptian multiplication algorithm. When we think about what is required for it to work, we are immediately lead to the axioms of a semi-group, and various examples are considered.<p>2. The second journey starts with division, and then Euclid GCD algorithm. We extend it to polynomials and beyond, and are led to the definition of a ring & euclidean domain. A surprising application to permutation algorithms is given as well!<p>3. The third journey is about the peano axioms and has a bit of logic and compatibility theory, then the peano axioms are weakened a bit to produce the notion of an <i>iterator</i> from programming.<p>Abstract algebra really seems like a much more relevant 'mathematics of everyday programming' than the usual subject CS students take, which seem to appear in domain specific technical work. By contrast, abstract algebra is to some extent elementary arithmetic and algebra, but extended to <i>non-numerical data</i>, of the kind that appears all time in general-purpose computing.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/A9Videos/playlists" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/user/A9Videos/playlists</a>
The Mother of All Demos.<p>I'm tired of talks. I would much rather most hackers organize their thoughts and set them down for posterity in the form of essays, white papers, and the like, rather than succumb to the temptation of listening to oneself speak. If one must present, either set it down in written form also (slides don't count), or have something so mindblowing to present that no writing can do it justice (as Engelbart did). Otherwise, making me sit through a video instead of reading what you're trying to say is simply wasting my time.<p>The curse of "documentation by talk" -- which I hope more Hackernews will join me in excoriating -- has become particularly pernicious, especially among millennial and younger programmers.
Richard Hamming: You and Your Research<p>It's on picking the right problems. When I heard him give it I was shocked that he criticized Einstein for working on a unified field theory (of course unlike me, he was actually <i>qualified</i> to offer such criticism). His point for that example was that the necessary tools to attack the problem hadn't yet been developed so it was a fruitless endeavor. While many very important problems <i>are</i> tractable.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw</a><p>He gave this talk several times (I heard it at NASA in 84). Here's a good transcript: <a href="http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html</a>
Rich Hickey has some fantastic talks: <a href="https://changelog.com/posts/rich-hickeys-greatest-hits" rel="nofollow">https://changelog.com/posts/rich-hickeys-greatest-hits</a><p>My favorite is <a href="https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hickey" rel="nofollow">https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hi...</a>
What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System talk by Prof. Michael Levin - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjD1aLm4Thg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjD1aLm4Thg</a>
Bret Victor has some really inspiring ideas, inspired to some extent by Alan Kay.<p>Media for Thinking the Unthinkable:
<a href="http://worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/" rel="nofollow">http://worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/</a><p>The Future of Programming:
<a href="http://worrydream.com/dbx/" rel="nofollow">http://worrydream.com/dbx/</a><p>A powerful idea about ideas
<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful_idea_about_ideas/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ted.com/talks/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful_idea_ab...</a>
Google Tech Talks Personal Growth Series: Dr William Dement on Healthy Sleep and Optimal Performance (2008-09-23)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hAw1z8GdE8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hAw1z8GdE8</a>