Michael Poteat

Located in the vibrant city of San Francisco, Mike Poteat is a committed technical leader, skilled software engineer, and approachable people manager. His areas of interest are wide-ranging and encompass programming, type theory, pure mathematics, and more. In the open-source world, Mike has had the opportunity to contribute to meaningful projects. One of these, hkt-toolbelt, applies higher-kinded types to TypeScript in an attempt to expand its functionality. Additionally, he's worked on spellbound, an agent-based LLM-powered VS Code extension that aims to enhance the usability of the platform. Currently, Mike finds himself immersed in the voice AI industry at a startup backed by Y Combinator. He's part of a team working on the front lines of artificial intelligence, continually learning and evolving their approach to create cutting-edge solutions. Away from his day job, Mike takes time to reflect and share his experiences on his blog, code.lol. He delves into topics around machine learning, programming, and other tech-related subjects, hoping that his musings might offer value to others exploring these fields.

Volley Inc, USAcode.lol poteat

The Potential of Higher-Kinded Types for Library Semantics

TypeScript Congress 2023

8 min

The Potential of Higher-Kinded Types for Library Semantics

There is a wall that we all hit when developing more sophisticated types: how can I 'abstract out' certain commonalities in my type-level logic? How can I make my types more reusable and composable? How can I make my types more expressive?

This talk will introduce the fundamentals of Higher-Kinded Types, a compelling concept hitherto underutilized, and explore how they can significantly enhance the expressiveness of library semantics, leading to a more intuitive developer experience (DX). We'll demonstrate how HKTs can provide an elevated abstraction level, allowing you to model complex domain problems more naturally and in a type-safe manner.

Join us to understand how leveraging HKTs can elevate your TypeScript coding practice, optimizing the semantics and delivering a more potent and featureful library interface.