Wookash Podcast Ben Visness | New paradigm for web development
19 snips
Jan 3, 2026 In this discussion, Ben Visnes, a Compiler and WebAssembly engineer at Mozilla, shares his journey from early web development with JavaScript to leading the Handmade Network community. He dives into the essence of low-level programming, the philosophy behind the Handmade movement, and the importance of ‘reinventing the wheel.' Ben explains WebAssembly's significance as a portable bytecode and its evolving role beyond browsers. He emphasizes real engineering practices and the challenges of memory management in web development. A must-listen for tech enthusiasts!
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Childhood Origins: Websites And Lego Robotics
- Ben learned programming by making websites and Lego robotics as a child, starting around 2005.
- Those early experiments shaped his taste for building things from first principles rather than relying on frameworks.
College Confusion Led To Handmade
- Ben describes his college experience learning object-oriented dogma that often didn't make sense to him.
- Finding the Handmade community validated his doubts and reshaped his programming approach.
From Web Dev To Compiler Engineer
- Ben moved from React/Go web work to compiler work at Mozilla after years at a small web company.
- His experience building a robust Go-based notification service showed the difference between ad-hoc coding and engineering with measurements.
