Sam Cooper
@sam-cooper.bsky.social
π€ 358
π₯ 1709
π 194
Author of Kotlin Brain Teasers
https://pragprog.com/titles/kotlinbt
pinned post!
New book! π Kotlin Brain Teasers is out now in early access beta. If you like
#Kotlin
and enjoy yelling "Wait, WHAT?!" at your IDE, this is the book for you. Reviewers said: "I hate this code so much" and "This code is actively making my day worse." π§ π§©
pragprog.com/titles/kotli...
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Kotlin Brain Teasers
Level up your Kotlin the fun way! Solve mysteries, dodge traps, and banish bugs. Sharpen your critical thinking to ace interviews and ship rock-solid code.
https://pragprog.com/titles/kotlinbt/kotlin-brain-teasers/
6 months ago
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verdverm
4 days ago
10 years old and maybe never more relevant than in contemporary software development
www.commitstrip.com/en/2016/08/2...
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Ivan βCLOVISβ Canet
4 days ago
Floating-point numbers are weirder than you thinkβ¦
ivan.canet.dev/blog/2025/11...
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What is the smallest number in Kotlin? - Ivan βCLOVISβ Canet
Software engineering, open source and computer security
https://ivan.canet.dev/blog/2025/11/10/ieee754.html
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Rate my Fibonacci! π After some improvements suggested by one of the book's tech reviewers, I think this code example from Chapter 10 of π Kotlin Coroutine Confidence strikes a neat balance between brevity and readability. What do you think? How would you write it? π
pragprog.com/titles/...
5 days ago
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I don't want to brag, but they mentioned my book before they mentioned Obama
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It happened on Medium: October 2025 roundup
SEO stats, spooky reads, and what publication editors featured
https://medium.com/blog/it-happened-on-medium-october-2025-roundup-eb1ed51c9bc2
7 days ago
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Bookshop.org
14 days ago
Few things scare me more than someone telling me theyβll just βbuy the book on Amazonβ π«
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π Working on my new LinkedIn bio. "I love to respond to AI messages, but only if they correctly show me a seahorse emoji." Let the chaos begin π΄ π π π π‘ π¦ πͺΈ π π π¦ π¦ πͺΌ π§ββοΈ π¦ π’ π¬ π³ π π π¦ π πͺ» πͺ· πͺΉ πͺΊ πΎ πͺΌ π πͺΈ π π π‘ π¦ π¦ π π¦ π΄ π π¦ π
knowyourmeme.com/mem...
15 days ago
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"Two networks are better than one," says Vodafone, telling me I can now get service from both Three and Vodafone, thanks to their merger. I don't suppose they can see the irony in their choice of wording.
15 days ago
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Rachel Gilmore
17 days ago
Instead of trying to green cars so much why don't we just invest in trains. city trains. under ground trains. above ground trains. trains between cities. trains between countries. TRAINS THE PEOPLE CRAVE TRAINS
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Thanks
@stackoverflow.blog.web.brid.gy
for mentioning my article in last week's newsletterβand congratulations on 300 issues! Nice link description, too: "Dotting your i's and crossing your t's matters even in Kotlin." Can't believe I didn't think of that one! π€¦
stackoverflow.blog/newsletter/i...
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Issue 300: This...is... STACK OVERFLOW! - Stack Overflow
Founded in 2008, Stack Overflowβs public platform is used by nearly everyone who codes to learn, share their knowledge, collaborate, and build their careers.
https://stackoverflow.blog/newsletter/issue-300-this-is-stack-overflow/
17 days ago
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Trying to summarise all of asynchronous programming and structured concurrency in fifteen minutes would be kind of insane. So of course, that's exactly what I decided to do when I spoke at ACCU York last month. π I think it went okay!
youtu.be/VJC1BJ2ZDEM
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How Do You Tame the Async BEAST with Kotlin and JavaScript? - Sam Cooper
YouTube video by ACCU Conference
https://youtu.be/VJC1BJ2ZDEM
17 days ago
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Indie Book Spotlight
17 days ago
Writers are nothing if not well versed in the art of telling their writing software why its punctuation and grammar suggestions are incorrect.
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Martin Janiczek
25 days ago
I do find LLMs occassionally useful, but the "You're absolutely right!" is gonna kill me one day.
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In many video games, when I loot a chest, the value and level of the loot is fixed, but the specific selection of items is randomised. It would be inefficient to populate every chest up front, so maybe the contents are only determined when I open the box. SchrΓΆdinger would have liked that, I bet.
about 1 month ago
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Hackernews Top Stories
about 1 month ago
β‘ Hackernews Top story: A years-long Turkish alphabet bug in the Kotlin compiler
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The Country That Broke Kotlin
Logic vs language: how a Turkish alphabet bug played a years-long game of hide-and-seek inside the Kotlin compiler
https://sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-that-broke-kotlin-84bdd0afb237
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On LinkedIn I try to have a policy that if you try to sell me gen AI I will unfollow/mute. But that's becoming increasingly difficult as people whose posts I usually respect and enjoy start jumping on the AI crapwagon π’
about 1 month ago
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π€ I seem to be on the front page of Hacker News π€―π€―π€―
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4555...
about 1 month ago
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The Lobste.rs RSS feed
about 1 month ago
The Country That Broke Kotlin
https://lobste.rs/s/l6yqm8
##kotlin
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The Country That Broke Kotlin
Logic vs language: how a Turkish alphabet bug played a years-long game of hide-and-seek inside the Kotlin compiler
https://sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-that-broke-kotlin-84bdd0afb237
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Sam Cooper
about 1 month ago
Kotlin Weekly #480 has just been published! -
mailchi.mp/kotlinweekly...
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Kotlin Weekly #480
https://mailchi.mp/kotlinweekly/kotlin-weekly-480
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It'd be cool if
@medium.com
had A/B title testing! CTR seemed low, so trying out a switch from "The Country that Broke Kotlin" to π "The message said βINFO.β Kotlin crashed." What do you think of the new title? Better? Worse? Mysterious? Boring?
sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-...
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The message said βINFO.β Kotlin crashed.
Logic vs language: how a Turkish alphabet bug played a years-long game of hide-and-seek inside the Kotlin compiler
https://sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-that-broke-kotlin-84bdd0afb237
about 1 month ago
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In a fit of morbid curiosity, I asked Claude to list some key facts from a programming article of mine. It assured me that a key piece of advice given in the text (about Kotlin coroutines) is to "Never reproduce copyrighted material in responses" I think it might be mixing up its inputs π€£
about 1 month ago
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Just learned that the German for software developer is Software-Entwickler. Kind of want to start using "entwickle" as an English verb now. Along the same lines as verbs like "entangle," "enforce," or "enliven." I entwickle, you entwickle, he/she entwickles... "Just entwickled some great Kotlin"
about 1 month ago
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"It took a month for someone to spot the smoking gun." I had a lot of fun researching this long-form write-up of what I think is one of Kotlin's most interesting bugs. Hope you enjoy reading it and maybe learn something you didn't know!
sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-...
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The Country That Broke Kotlin
Logic versus language: how a Turkish alphabet bug played a years-long game of hide-and-seek inside the Kotlin compiler
https://sam-cooper.medium.com/the-country-that-broke-kotlin-84bdd0afb237
about 1 month ago
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I worry LLMs are giving AI a bad name. People look at ChatGPT hallucinations and ask, "we're trusting this stuff to diagnose cancer?" No, medical imaging AI and LLMs are very different! (Thankfully) I guess it benefits the LLM companies to associate themselves with genuinely useful technologies π¬
about 1 month ago
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Goodreads reviewers are a tough audience! My Kotlin books have some really nice reviewsβ"solid fun"; "excellent"βnext to three- or four-star ratings. Wonder what it takes to get five stars! Thanks so much for leaving your reviews; it really helps π (At least I still have five stars on Amazon π€©)
about 1 month ago
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Kotlin head-scratcher: when can MutableList.add() return "false"? Think carefullyβit's a tricky one.
about 1 month ago
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π€ Does the new "Show fewer shorts" button on the YouTube home screen actually do anything? I've been clicking "Show fewer shorts" every time I see shorts on the YouTube home screen, which so far is still... every time I visit the YouTube home screen. π€¦
about 1 month ago
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The number one thing I've learned as a writer (and reader) is that trying to build suspense or delay the punchline makes a piece less engaging, not more. The best tech articles I've read lay out the conclusion up front and then add detail and evidence. I'm trying to get better at doing that too!
about 1 month ago
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 1 month ago
PragPicks Weekend 40% off with code PragPicks In case you missed one - this week's PragPicks ALL back on sale
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 1 month ago
"If you are an engineer who loves a well-told technical story, then you will get a lot from this book, maybe even a new appreciation for Kotlin." -- Rob Chapman, Author of Observability with Grafana
pragprog.com/titles/...
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 1 month ago
Today's Pragmatic Picks: Use code PragPicks to save 40% on these titles (today only!) π Kotlin Coroutine Confidence π Test-Driven React, Second Edition π Programmer Passport: Elixir π Programming Phoenix LiveView
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 2 months ago
In addition to being a Kotlin expert, author Sam Cooper has a Master's degree in French Language and Literature from Oxford - Pragprog authors are always an amazement!
pragprog.com/titles/...
#PragPick
#Kotlin
#BrainTeasers
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 2 months ago
Use code PragPicks to save 40% on these titles (today only!) Todayβs Pragmatic Picks: π Kotlin Brain Teasers π Serverless Apps on Cloudflare π From Ruby to Elixir π Build, Tune, Explore with OpenWebRX+ links in π§΅
@vk2sky.bsky.social
Sam Cooper Ashley Peacock Stephen Bussey
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The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 2 months ago
βIt's full of fun puzzles and language quirks I've picked up from years of working with Kotlin. If you enjoy yelling "Wait, WHAT!?" at your IDE, this is the book for you.β β Sam Cooper
pragprog.com/titles/...
#PragPick
#Kotlin
#BrainTeasers
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 2 months ago
Level up your Kotlin the fun way! Solve mysteries, dodge traps, and banish bugs. Sharpen your critical thinking to ace interviews and ship rock-solid code.
pragprog.com/titles/...
#PragPick
#Kotlin
#BrainTeasers
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Oh look, it's Elvis, hiding in my copy of Kotlin Brain Teasers πΊπ»π€. He looks a bit vacant behind the eyes, I hope he's okayβ¦ π Kotlin Brain Teasers π
pragprog.com/titles/...
about 2 months ago
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Really proud that Kotlin Brain Teasers is one of
@pragprog.com
's picks of the day today! It was so much fun to write this book, and it's great to see people enjoying it π₯° All day September 30 you can get 40% off the ebook at
pragprog.com/titles/kotli...
when you use code PragPicks at the checkout π
about 2 months ago
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Sam Cooper
Bookshop.org
about 2 months ago
I hear *someone* is having a sale next week. I guess they have to try and recoup some of that $2.5 billion theyβre forking over for *checks notes* being deceptive? Who wouldβve thought? Feels like Oct 7 & 8 will be prime days to support independent bookstores. π
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Kotlin did what!? You'll have to buy Kotlin Brain Teasers to find out π Or at least check out the free sample puzzles on the website π
pragprog.com/titles/...
about 2 months ago
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Where should I keep these? Feels wrong to just stash them in the bookshelf with the other tech stuff. On the other hand, leaving them out on the coffee table feels a bit like braggingβ¦
about 2 months ago
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Once again grinning proudly with a book in my hand! This is my second book, Kotlin Brain Teasers. It was so much fun to unbox this and see the code puzzles on paper. I hope you enjoy solving them! More about the book here π
pragprog.com/titles/...
about 2 months ago
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Gareth L. Powell
about 2 months ago
Just a reminder that if you enjoy a book, please leave a quick review on Amazon or Bookshop dot org, or wherever. Even if it's only a sentence, it really, really helps get the word out to other readers.
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"The first tech book I could not put down. It is brilliantly structured, effortlessly engaging, and full of moments that make complex ideas click." Well, who am I to disagree? It's right there IN PRINT on the cover of my book! Don't just judge a book by its cover, though; buy it and make sure π
about 2 months ago
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Why yes π€ what a very good book filled with practical coroutine advice π§π‘ Still can't believe I'm holding a copy of my own book!
about 2 months ago
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π΄π΅ If you follow this #Kotlin tip from Seb you can actually make your regular functions blue and your #async functions red, just like in Bob Nystrom's "What color is your function?" π
http://youtu.be/L-37...
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Custom colors for suspending functions in Kotlin coroutines #kotlin #programming
Kotlin coroutines are great, and its core primitive is the suspending function. With a small change in your IDE settings, you can give them a custom color (light a bright green), which makes it easy to spot them at a glance, even when you're looking at a lot of code.
http://youtu.be/L-37yVmXO1w
about 2 months ago
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This silly pyramid sketch is one of my favourite illustrations I drew for my book. So cool to see it in print, it looks even better! This is a page from the second chapter of Kotlin Coroutine Confidence π
pragprog.com/titles/...
about 2 months ago
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I will also post this picture on its own because I feel like I (accidentally) let the box take centre stage in my other post. The box is cool and all, but I MADE A BOOK! I think that means I have to proudly celebrate my achievement and not hide behind a box. π
pragprog.com/titles/...
about 2 months ago
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This is the face of a proud author π. Just opened up my very own print copies of Kotlin Coroutine Confidence! It feels great to hold it in my hand after all that time spent staring at a manuscript on a screen.
about 2 months ago
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Sam Cooper
The Pragmatic Bookshelf β
about 2 months ago
It's #FlashSale Weekend at
pragprog.com
#FlashSale
45% off* with code FlashSale *almost everything! During checkout, where to enter the code?
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Channel: messages are shared out so that each message is received by exactly one consumer. Shared flow: messages are replicated so that each consumer receives its own copy of every message. #kotlin #coroutine tips π‘ The diagram is from π Kotlin Coroutine Confidence π
pragprog.com/titles/...
about 2 months ago
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