One CS paper every Saturday
Read one paper a week. Learn to read the next one yourself.
Summaries tell you what a paper says. pasttheabstract teaches you how to read it, in three passes: two minutes, fifteen minutes, an evening. Stop after any of them and you still leave with something whole.
Free. Email, push notification, or both. No streaks, no guilt.Pass 1 · the big picture2 minCan a consensus algorithm be as correct as Paxos, but easy enough that ordinary engineers can understand and implement it correctly?
Pass 2 · the story15 minOptimize for understandability: one strong leader sends every change to the followers, never the other way round.
Pass 3 · rebuild and challengeAn evening1Implement leader election with three simulated servers and random timeouts, then add log replication.
How every edition works
Three passes, each one deeper
Every edition follows S. Keshav's three-pass method for reading a paper. Do it every week and the method becomes yours.
Pass 1 · 2 minThe big pictureThe one question the paper answers, the five Cs, and the real systems that use it today.
Pass 2 · 15 minThe storyProblem, insight, how it works and the evidence, with a walkthrough of the one figure that matters.
Pass 3 · An eveningRebuild and challengeImplement the core idea, question its assumptions, and compare it with the papers before it.
The reading coach
An expert's margin notes for the real PDF
For every section of the original paper: read it, read it closely, skim it, or skip it for now, plus one line on what to look for. Open a section and the note sits beside the page. The verdicts change with how deep you're going.
Try it on this week's edition →raft.pdf · guide
1–2Introduction, replicated state machinesReadWhy consensus exists at all.
3What's wrong with PaxosSkimEnough to feel the pain.
5The Raft algorithmRead closelyThe core. Keep Figure 2 beside you.
6Membership changesSkimWhy changing the cluster needs care.
7Log compactionSkip for nowNeeded to build it, not to understand it.
Editions so far
Papers that still run the world
One paper every Saturday, read in passes.
Go as deep as your week allows. Stopping after the first pass still counts. After a few Saturdays, the next paper is one you can open on your own.
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