Object-Oriented Programming is Embarrassing: 4 Short Examples
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters point to it as a sharp, example-driven critique of OOP and Clean Code style, often alongside Brian Will's other anti-OO videos.
What it is
Brian Will follows up his earlier anti-OOP video by walking through four short code examples, including Java code in the style of Uncle Bob, to show how object-oriented design complicates simple programs. It argues that OOP hides and scatters state and adds needless indirection.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2016 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec rubyist5eva · 2021-03 · on “Why OO Sucks by Joe Armstrong (2000)”
I highly recommend "Object Oriented Programming is Bad" and "Object Oriented Programming is Embarrassing" on Youtube. [LINK] [this video]
Strong rec ravenstine · 2025-07 · on “Python classes aren’t always the best solution”
One of my favorites: "Object-Oriented Programming is Bad" [LINK] Followed by "Object-Oriented Programming is Embarrassing: 4 Short Examples". [this video]
Recommends DrScump · 2016-03 · on “Inheritance Is Terrible”
Perhaps the Brian Will anti-OO videos provide more useful examples: [LINK] "Object-Oriented Programming is Bad" [this video] "Object-Oriented Programming is Embarrassing: 4 Short Examples"
Recommends smnplk · 2019-10 · on “Object-Oriented Programming and Essential State”
Check out this video [this video] from Brian Will, where he dissects 4 different code examples. I think one of the examples is also some Java code from Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin.
Recommends lazulicurio · 2019-10 · on “Why Isn't Functional Programming the Norm? [video]”
There was an article on state in OOP posted here a few days ago that I found very thought-provoking[1]. The blog post and related youtube videos are pretty interesting as well[2][3][4]. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [this video]
Recommends pentaphobe · 2021-05 · on “It's probably time to stop recommending Clean Code (2020)”
Somewhat relatedly (covers some very similar concerns and IIRC even references "Clean Code"), Brian Wills has a few good videos [LINK] [this video]
Cites thunderbong · 2016-03 · on “Object-Oriented Programming is Garbage: 3800 SLOC example [video]”
Previous videos Object-Oriented Programming is Bad [LINK] Object-Oriented Programming is Embarrassing: 4 Short Examples [this video] I'm watching the 'is Bad' one, and honestly, it rings too close to my experience. Need to think about this a bit more deeply!
Cites lj3 · 2016-12 · on “Talks that changed the way I think about programming”
There are three talks, actually. Here are the other two. Object-Oriented Programming is Embarrassing: 4 Short Examples[0] Object-Oriented Programming is Garbage: 3800 SLOC example[1] [0]: [this video] [1]: [LINK]