Hyperstitious Workbench
Interactive Algorithmic Fluency Interface
Core Thesis
Algorithmic fluency is not knowledge about algorithms—it's the capacity to think with and through computational structures. Like language fluency, it's embodied, intuitive, and developed through practice.
Most programming education focuses on syntax and semantics. The Workbench focuses on kinesthetic understanding—the feel of recursion, the shape of a fold, the rhythm of map-filter-reduce.
The "hyperstitious" framing: ideas that make themselves real through belief and enactment. By practicing algorithmic thinking in a responsive environment, the patterns become part of how you perceive problems.
The Fluency Model
Algorithmic fluency develops through four interlocking capacities:
Seeing the structure beneath the surface. Recognizing that "sum a list" and "concatenate strings" and "find maximum" are all folds.
Practice: Given a problem, identify which core pattern applies before writing any code.
Breaking complex problems into composable pieces. Finding the seams where a system naturally separates.
Practice: Given a monolithic function, identify the smallest meaningful units.
Recognizing what varies and what stays the same. Parameterizing the variable parts. Building general from specific.
Practice: Given three similar functions, extract the common pattern as a higher-order function.
Combining small pieces into larger wholes. Understanding how data flows through pipelines. Threading transformations.
Practice: Given a set of small functions, compose them to solve a complex problem without writing new logic.
Workbench Modes
The Workbench provides four modes of engagement, each supporting different aspects of fluency development:
Free-form REPL interaction with guided prompts. No goals, no grades—just responsive feedback.
Persistence: Ephemeral by default. Flick up to preserve interesting expressions to Volatile.
Structured exercises with verification. Progressive difficulty. Spaced repetition for pattern internalization.
Persistence: Session tracks current streak. Local stores long-term progress and mastery levels.
Project scaffolding and incremental construction. Real artifacts that do real things.
Persistence: Local during development. Promote to Distributed when sharing or deploying.
Review session history. Pattern recognition across your own work. Insight crystallization.
Persistence: Insights worth keeping are witnessed at Archival stratum.
Core Patterns Library
The Workbench is organized around a curated set of fundamental patterns. Mastery means these become automatic—you reach for them without conscious thought.
Live Workbench
Practice algorithmic patterns. Select a challenge, write your solution, verify with tests.
Press Enter to run your solution. Tab to navigate between challenges.
Why Unison?
Unison is a language where code is content-addressed. Every definition has a hash. Names are just metadata. This has profound implications for the Workbench.
Once you write a function, its hash is its identity forever. Refactoring is renaming, not changing. Your history is preserved.
Different versions of a function can coexist. Your old code keeps working even as the ecosystem evolves.
Code can be shared by hash. The Workbench can pull patterns from a global library and push your solutions back.
Because code is data, the Workbench can offer semantic editing—transform patterns, not text.
Unison's model aligns with Fold/Unfold's permanence gradient: code naturally lives at the Archival stratum. The Workbench makes this visible.
Connection to Fold/Unfold
The Workbench and Fold/Unfold are complementary systems. Fold/Unfold provides the persistence architecture; the Workbench is a primary client.
| Workbench State | Fold/Unfold Stratum | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| REPL expression | Ephemeral | Exists only during evaluation |
| Scratch buffer | Volatile | Working memory, cleared on restart |
| Current exercise | Session | Persists for duration of practice session |
| Progress / mastery | Local | Your personal learning record |
| Shared solutions | Distributed | Published to community, replicated |
| Canonical patterns | Archival | Core library, content-addressed |
The Workbench doesn't just use Fold/Unfold—it teaches the concepts. Working through the strata becomes intuitive through practice.
On Hyperstition
What makes an idea "hyperstitious"?
Hyperstition: fictions that make themselves real. Not lies, not truths—but ideas that function because they're believed and enacted. Money, nations, programming languages.
The Workbench is hyperstitious in this sense: by practicing algorithmic thinking, you become someone who thinks algorithmically. The practice creates the practitioner.
There's a loop: the Workbench helps you build the Workbench. As your fluency grows, you can extend the tool that extends you. This is the hyperstitious engine.