Michael Snoyman

An eclectic mix of programming, health, finance, religion, and whatever else catches my attention.

This is where I write, share projects, work through ideas, and occasionally disappear down a rabbit hole.

Michael Snoyman

About me

I'm a software developer, author, open source maintainer, amateur weightlifter, and inveterate learner. I've spent much of my career around Haskell and Rust, but the subjects here range much further afield.

I live in Maalot, Israel, with my wife Miriam and our six children.

Recent writing

Kabbalah and Economics

What Kabbalah's progression from receiving to giving can teach us about violence, free markets, socialism, and low time preference.

Kabbalah, Haskell, and the ST Monad

A surprising analogy between Haskell's immutability and ST monad, and the Kabbalistic idea that spiritual states are never erased.

Who pays a tax?

When the government adds a new tax, such as Trump's tariffs, who absorbs the cost of the tax?

The Paradox of Necessary Force

Many of us dream of living in a world without any violence. Let's explore why at least the threat of violence will always be necessary.

Incentives Determine Outcomes

Why do people do seemingly irrational things? What is moral hazard? This and much more is explained through incentives.

Browse all blog posts →

Publications

Talks

Rustikon 2025, Poland 2025-03 Strongly Typed Financial Conference Video · Slides (PPT) · Slides (PDF)
Functional Conf 2025 2025-01 When to be Weird Slides · Video
Signify Technology 2024-04 Roundtable | Unlocking Blockchain's Potential with Rust Video
Func Prog Sweden 2023 2023-03 Intro to Rust Slides · Video
Functional Conf 2022 2022-03 FP is the new OOP Slides · Video
GoLab/RustLab joint event 2021-05 Go vs Rust | Round table discussion Video
LambdaConf 2020 Global Edition 2020-05 Economic Argument for Functional Programming Slides · Video
Haskell in the City 2020-04 What Makes Haskell Unique (2020 update) Slides · Video
Berlin Functional Programming Group 2020-04 Your Second Haskell Web App Slides · Video
Functional Conf 2019 2019-11 Your first Haskell web app with WAI and Warp Slides · Video
Functional Conf 2019 2019-11 Applied Haskell workshop
Amsterdam Haskell Meetup 2019-09 Deploying Haskell Services Slides · Video
LambdaConf 2019 2019-06 Why you should use Software Transactional Memory Repository
Functional Conf 2018 2018-12 Functional Programming for the Long Haul Slides · Video
FLIP 2018 2018-07 Haskell from the Inside Out Slides
LambdaConf 2018 2018-06 Haskell Hackathon
LambdaConf 2018 2018-05 Applied Haskell (two day training)
FP Complete Webinar 2018-04 Asynchronous Exception Handling in Haskell Slides · Video
F(by) 2017 2017-12 What Makes Haskell Unique Slides · Video
LambdaWorld 2017-10 Everything you didn't want to know about monad transformer state Slides · Video
LambdaConf 2017 2017-05 Web Programming and Streaming Data in Haskell Slides · Video (1) · Video (2)
LambdaConf 2017 2017-05 Applied Haskell (two day training)
Twitter 2015-11 Haskell for fast, concurrent, robust services Slides · Video
Haskeller Meetup, Tel Aviv 2015-08 Haskell in Enterprise Slides
PolyConf 2014 2014-10 Hybrid server/client Haskell web apps Slides · Video
Haskell Users Group, Berlin 2014-10 Conduit Slides
Haskell Cast 2014-02 Pipes and Conduit Video
Mostly Erlang (podcast) 2013-11 Yesod and FP Complete Audio
Erlang Factory, Tel Aviv 2013-10 Programming with Functional Style Slides
Sayeret Lambda 2012-12 Haskell and Yesod Slides
Floss Weekly 2012-12 Yesod Video
O'Reilly Webinar 2012-11 Designing Domain Specific Languages Video · Slides
Sayeret Lambda (podcast) 2012-10 Yesod Audio
Big Techday 5 2012-06 Designing Type-Safe Haskell APIs Video · Slides
QCon San Francisco 2011-11 Yesod Web Framework Video · Slides