11 videos · 10 hr 50 minObjects on Trial
Few topics start longer HN threads than object-oriented programming. This list lets each side make its best case in order: first the people who make objects work, then the critics, then Alan Kay on what he actually meant, and finally Casey Muratori's history of how we got here. Watch it in order and decide for yourself.
Play all on YouTube- 138:47
RailsConf 2014 - All the Little Things by Sandi Metz
Confreaks · Picked by 15 · 2015–2025The defense opens with its strongest witness: Metz turns ugly conditionals into small objects, and HN quotes her 'duplication is cheaper than the wrong abstraction' more than anything else here.
- 238:25
"The Clean Code Talks -- Inheritance, Polymorphism, & Testing"
Google TechTalks · Picked by 3 · 2009–2023Misko Hevery's 2008 case for replacing if and switch statements with polymorphism, the textbook OO move the prosecution will later attack.
- 31:48:42
Clean Code - Uncle Bob / Lesson 1
UnityCoin · Picked by 6 · 2020–2026Uncle Bob's argument for craftsmanship as an ethical duty; HN fans say the lecture is better than the book, and it is the style several later critics take aim at.
- 427:29
Stop Writing Classes
Next Day Video · Picked by 8 · 2012–2025The prosecution starts gently: Jack Diederich deletes needless Python classes, and several HN commenters say this talk changed how they write code.
- 5
44:35Object-Oriented Programming is Bad
Brian Will · Picked by 13 · 2016–2025Brian Will's full indictment that encapsulation is mostly illusory, HN's go-to anti-OOP video with 13 recommenders.
- 6
28:03Object-Oriented Programming is Embarrassing: 4 Short Examples
Brian Will · Picked by 6 · 2016–2025The evidence phase: four short programs, including Uncle Bob-style Java, rewritten to show how objects scatter state.
- 7
22:41"Clean" Code, Horrible Performance
Molly Rocket · Picked by 3 · 2023–2026A different charge, performance: Muratori benchmarks clean-code polymorphism against plain code, and it now shows up in every SOLID debate on HN.
- 8
1:00:10Functional architecture - The pits of success - Mark Seemann
NDC Conferences · Picked by 5 · 2018–2025A third way: Seemann argues functional design gives you the OO best practices for free, with a pure core and an impure shell.
- 9
56:39Alan Kay - Programming and Scaling
Colin McDonnell · Picked by 4 · 2016–2026The witness everyone cites: Kay on biological cells and why he thought objects would help software scale, which looks nothing like the classes on trial so far.
- 10
1:16:55Joe Armstrong & Alan Kay - Joe Armstrong interviews Alan Kay
Erlang Solutions · Picked by 6 · 2016–2026Erlang's creator questions Kay about message passing, and HN uses this conversation to argue that Erlang processes are closer to Kay's objects than Java is.
- 11
2:27:34Casey Muratori – The Big OOPs: Anatomy of a Thirty-five-year Mistake – BSC 2025
Better Software Conference · Picked by 11 · 2025–2026The two-hour closing argument, a source-based history back to the 1960s; HN loved the research and still disputes its account of Kay, so it makes a good end to the debate.