Functions that operate on other functions, either by taking them as arguments or by returning them, are called higher-order functions. If you have already accepted the fact that functions are regular values, there is nothing particularly remarkable about the fact that such functions exist. The term comes from mathematics, where the distinction between functions and other values is taken more seriously.
Higher-Order Functions :: Eloquent JavaScript
9 years
It is more likely to be correct because the solution is expressed in a vocabulary that corresponds to the problem being solved. Summing a range of numbers isn’t about loops and counters. It is about ranges and sums. The definitions of this vocabulary (the functions sum and range) will still involve loops, counters, and other incidental details. But because they are expressing simpler concepts than the program as ...
Higher-Order Functions :: Eloquent JavaScript
Higher-Order Functions :: Eloquent JavaScript
9 years
...lings were going to grow into big, beautiful swans.
Most people's first impulse when they hear about a lame-sounding new startup idea is to make fun of it. Even a lot of people who should know better.
When I encounter a startup with a lame-sounding idea, I ask "What Microsoft is this the Altair Basic of?" Now it's a puzzle, and the burden is on me to solve it. Sometimes I can't think of an answer, especially when the idea is a made-up one. But it's remarkable how often there does turn out to be an answer. Often it's one the founders themselves hadn't seen yet.
Intriguingly, there are sometimes multiple answers. I talked to a startup a few days ago that could grow into 3 distinct Microsofts. They'd probably vary in size by orders of magnitude. But you can ...
What Microsoft Is this the Altair Basic of?
9 years
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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I often wonder how the Internet would have turned out differently if users had been able to annotate everything – to add new layers of knowledge to all knowledge, on and on, ad infinitum. And so, 20 years later, Rap Genius finally gives us the opportunity to find out.
Marc Andreessen – Why Andreessen Horowitz Is Investing in Rap Genius
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
...I can hear the click. It’s maybe the only way to describe writers I love. I hear the click in most Nabokov. In Donne, Hopkins, Larkin. In Puig and Cortázar. Puig clicks like a fucking Geiger counter. And none of these people write prose as pretty as Updike, and yet I don’t hear the click in Updike.
A Conversation with David Foster Wallace By Larry McCaffery | Dalkey Archive Press
9 years
9 years
...’s stuff, for example, almost line by line I can hear the click. It’s maybe the only way to describe writers I love. I hear the click in most Nabokov. In Donne, Hopkins, Larkin. In Puig and Cortázar. Puig clicks like a fucking Geiger counter. And none of these people write prose as pretty as Updike, and yet I don’t hear the click in Updike.
A Conversation with David Foster Wallace By Larry McCaffery | Dalkey Archive Press
9 years
...tired of it, and panicked because I was suddenly not getting any joy from the one thing I was clearly supposed to do because I was good at it and people liked me for being good at it. Not a fun time. I think I had kind of a mid-life crisis at twenty, which probably doesn’t augur real well for my longevity.
A Conversation with David Foster Wallace By Larry McCaffery | Dalkey Archive Press
9 years
...inal sense. These moments appeared in proof-completions, or maybe algorithms. Or like a gorgeously simple solution to a problem you suddenly see after half a notebook with gnarly attempted solutions. It was really an experience of what I think Yeats called “the click of a well-made box.” Something like that. The word I always think of it as is “click.”
A Conversation with David Foster Wallace By Larry McCaffery | Dalkey Archive Press
9 years
21,952