Summary

Hillel Wayne announces the 1.0 release of his book 'Logic for Programmers,' five years in the making. His central argument is that formal logic is a surprisingly powerful tool for understanding everyday software concepts, yet no programmer-focused resource for learning it existed. Developers were expected to either read dense math textbooks or absorb it through osmosis — and the osmosis route doesn't work. The book targets working developers with zero math background, covering logic basics and applications ranging from property-based testing to domain modeling to logic programming. Each chapter was reviewed by both a domain expert and a junior programmer to ensure accuracy and accessibility.

Key Insight

Formal logic is foundational to understanding software, yet programmers have been left to acquire it through osmosis by default — a gap this book directly addresses with a rigorous but math-free curriculum.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 2

  Formal logic is an incredibly powerful tool to understand software.

• 5

  The osmosis route doesn't work.

• 6

  Everything from 'what's a left outer join' to 'why shouldn't `Square` inherit from `Rect`' makes more sense if you know just the basics of logic.

• 3

  Yet there weren't any programmer-focused resources for actually learning those basics.

• 4

  You were just sort of expected to crack open a math book or pick it up through osmosis.

• 3

  If you know AND and/or OR, you can read this book.

• 4

  I am very tired and glad to be done.

Tone

celebratory, earnest, reflective