A short Portuguese-language excerpt of Gerald Sussman's 2016 NYC Lisp Meetup talk explaining why MIT replaced the Scheme-based 6.001 (SICP) course with Python courses. The full talk is linked in the description.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN uses it as the canonical explanation from Sussman himself of why SICP ended at MIT.
“we can't mention SICP without referencing this (relatively recent) video”HN comment, 2025
Sussman talk on modern computing's complexity and why SICP ended.
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Don't miss Sussman's talk linked from the post: this video This stuff resonates with me deeply. The reality of the modern computing world is a clusterfuck that no single person understands, especially because, like Sussman said, parts are entirely secret/proprietary anyway. Therefore I think an engineer should be skilled in a) removing the unnecessary bits of that clusterfuck that are not necessary to their problem and b) getting stuff done without having a complete understanding of the whole system. (b) sounds scary as fuck, but I think that's the (sad?) reality we live in in the software and hardware world. Embrace the cluster; embrace the fuck.
RecommendsOhMeadhbhApr 2025
“we can't mention SICP without referencing this (relatively recent) video”
Video on why MIT moved intro classes from Scheme to Python.
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Also... HtDP (How to Design Programs) is a good follow-on to SICP. Oh... and I think we can't mention SICP without referencing this (relatively recent) video about why MIT moved from Scheme to Python for intro classes: this video
Cites itkagevfJan 2023
“the authors of SICP themselves wanted to update the curriculum”
Explains why SICP's authors wanted to update the curriculum.
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My understanding is that the authors of SICP themselves wanted to update the curriculum - not just a language change, but to cover something at a higher level of abstraction. See: this video
Cites itefortisApr 2023
“Gerald Jay Sussman explains why they pulled the plug on MIT 6001 (SICP) here”
Sussman explains why MIT dropped 6.001.
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Related, Gerald Jay Sussman explains why they pulled the plug on MIT 6001 (SICP) here: this video To me, part of the problem is that devs continuously change tech stacks without poking at the layers underneath. So only a few become proficient enough to focus on the abstractions. Similarly, now many designers are not more than technicians of graphic design tools.
Cites itjstx1Jul 2023
“Sussman says so himself”
Sussman says programming changed since SICP.
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Not necessarily as relevant, programming has changed a lot since SICP came out. Sussman says so himself - this video
Cites itMathMonkeyManMar 2025
“Gerald Sussman discusses the idea when talking about why MIT switched their introductory programming course from Scheme to Python”
Sussman on why MIT moved from Scheme to Python.
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In a sense this has been true of conventional programs for a while now. Gerald Sussman discusses the idea when talking about why MIT switched their introductory programming course from Scheme to Python: < this video >.
