Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In this episode, Alex Miller chats with former Strange Loop speaker Felienne Hermans about her new book "The Programmer's Brain" (manning.com/books/the-programmers-brain). Listeners to this episode can get 35% off at Manning (http://mng.bz/vzmx) with the code podstrangeloop21
Felienne Hermans (felienne.com/) is associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science at Leiden University, doing research on programming education (https://perl.liacs.nl/).
Felienne's Strange Loop talks mentioned in the show:
- (2014) "Spreadsheets for developers", youtube.com/watch?v=0CKru5d4GPk
- (2019) "How to teach programming (and other things)", youtube.com/watch?v=g1ib43q3uXQ
The Hedy programming language
- hedy-beta.herokuapp.com
- github.com/Felienne/hedy
You can find out more about Strange Loop at https://thestrangeloop.com.
Chapters
---------------
00:00 Intro
00:51 Overview of "The Programmer's Brain"
03:21 How does memory affect how we read code?
05:28 How do mental models affect understanding?
07:10 How do you intentionally practice reading code?
11:18 Vocalization of syntax
17:11 Explicit instruction vs immersion
18:44 Hedy programming language
21:19 Spreadsheets are programming
27:43 Release plans for "The Programmer's Brain"
In this episode, Alex Miller chats with former Strange Loop speaker Felienne Hermans about her new book "The Programmer's Brain" (manning.com/books/the-programmers-brain). Listeners to this episode can get 35% off at Manning (http://mng.bz/vzmx) with the code podstrangeloop21
Felienne Hermans (felienne.com/) is associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science at Leiden University, doing research on programming education (https://perl.liacs.nl/).
Felienne's Strange Loop talks mentioned in the show:
- (2014) "Spreadsheets for developers", youtube.com/watch?v=0CKru5d4GPk
- (2019) "How to teach programming (and other things)", youtube.com/watch?v=g1ib43q3uXQ
The Hedy programming language
- hedy-beta.herokuapp.com
- github.com/Felienne/hedy
You can find out more about Strange Loop at https://thestrangeloop.com.
Chapters
---------------
00:00 Intro
00:51 Overview of "The Programmer's Brain"
03:21 How does memory affect how we read code?
05:28 How do mental models affect understanding?
07:10 How do you intentionally practice reading code?
11:18 Vocalization of syntax
17:11 Explicit instruction vs immersion
18:44 Hedy programming language
21:19 Spreadsheets are programming
27:43 Release plans for "The Programmer's Brain"
