Inventing on Principle by Bret Victor
Shares rank 12 of 15 conference talks by recommenders
People recommend this talk as a mind-blowing demo of non-chat interfaces for building software and as a formative way to think about programming. No recurring complaints appear in the quotes.
People recommend this talk as a mind-blowing demo of non-chat interfaces for building software and as a formative way to think about programming. No recurring complaints appear in the quotes.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Non-chat interface for building products
“A great example of how to build a non-chat interface to product building (predating the AI boom)”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Haskell for all: Beyond agentic coding” Mind-blowing demo
“One of the most mind blowing demos to me was Bret Victor's inventing on principle”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “The programmers who live in Flatland” Formative for thinking about software
“It was formative for how I think about software.”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's the best talk you've watched?” Required viewing for everyone
“"Inventing on Principle" by Bret Victor is required viewing for anyone that hasn't seen it yet.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Inventing the Future, One Lisp Machine at a Time”
Other conference talks people recommend
The four most recommended other conference talks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Made Easy by Rich Hickey | 22 | 1 | 96% | 9 | — | Approved |
| The Birth and Death of JavaScript by Gary Bernhardt | 11 | 2 | 85% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Video Lectures | 11 | 1 | 92% | 3 | — | — |
| Wat by Gary Bernhardt | 9 | 1 | 90% | 5 | — | — |
| Inventing on Principle by Bret VictorThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“"Inventing on Principle" by Bret Victor is required viewing for anyone that hasn't seen it yet.”
“A great example of how to build a non-chat interface to product building (predating the AI boom)”
“It was formative for how I think about software.”
“One of the most mind blowing demos to me was Bret Victor's inventing on principle”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.