An Interview with Ben Eater

Welcome, Ben Eater! You may know Ben from his YouTube videos showing how to build a breadboard 8 bit computer

• Ben's background is in software/networking
  • 0h 0m 33s
• He has been an electronics hobbyist for a long time
  • 0h 1m 21s
• Digital electronics - Albert Paul Malvino
  • 0h 3m 0s
• The 8 bit computer started for a hackathon
  • 0h 3m 54s
• Bottom up learning
  • 0h 12m 59s
• We depend upon abstractions
  • 0h 15m 19s
• We have leaky abstractions
  • 0h 15m 36s
• Micro instruction
  • 0h 17m 54s
• 16B of memory
  • 0h 18m 25s
• Instruction or data
  • 0h 18m 33s
• Program with dip switches
  • 0h 18m 41s
• Program in and then switch into run mode
  • 0h 19m 17s
• 4 registers
  • 0h 21m 37s
• ALU
  • 0h 23m 24s
• Output register
  • 0h 23m 26s
• Can go a couple hundred hertz
  • 0h 24m 26s
• Instructions and microinstructions
  • 0h 25m 50s
• Combinationatorial logic circuit
  • 0h 28m 0s
• Control word
  • 0h 28m 7s
• Assembly programming and register model
  • 0h 32m 46s
• Optimizations
  • 0h 33m 39s
• every instruction takes 6 clock cycles
  • 0h 34m 24s
• What does the community look like?
  • 0h 35m 6s
• 14 breadboards
  • 0h 36m 5s
• Accessibility
  • 0h 36m 55s
• Using TTL logic chips
  • 0h 37m 30s
• Can stick an LED on an LS output
  • 0h 37m 47s
• The community is mostly on the subreddit /r/beneater
  • 0h 39m 37s
• Ben is now selling a kit
  • 0h 39m 43sTTL
• Comes with the LS chips
  • 0h 41m 1s
• Seeing how people struggle
  • 0h 44m 21s
• microcosm of the education system
  • 0h 45m 44s
• Extrinsic motivation
  • 0h 47m 43s
• Dopamine loops
  • 0h 48m 7s
• Ben previously worked at Khan Academy (KA)
  • 0h 48m 35s
• In his student days he didn't like math
  • 0h 50m 48s
• Stumbled on a bug when checking out KA.
  • 0h 51m 44s
• Volunteered time to KA.
  • 0h 52m 3s
• Hired on in 2011
  • 0h 55m 19s
• They are a non-profit tech company
  • 0h 57m 37s
• Taught classes in the networking space
  • 0h 59m 7s
• Books on education
  • 1h 1m 16s
• Mindstorms by Seymour Papert
  • 1h 1m 45s
• Logo programming language
  • 1h 2m 31s
• Turtle
  • 1h 2m 49s
• Mindset by Carol Dweck
  • • 1h 6m 4s
• Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
  • 1h 6m 34s
• Metacognition at Khan
  • 1h 8m 6s
• Game designers have figured this out
  • 1h 9m 8s
• Mario level 1
  • 1h 9m 28s
• RSA animate of Dan Pink
  • 1h 13m 33s
• Mastery Autonomy Purpose
  • 1h 15m 15s
• Making more videos, there is a newer one about CRCs
  • 1h 19m 28s
• Find Ben on Reddit, YouTube, or Twitter
  • 1h 20m 38s