Re:What should a striving non-programmer do?
by Alex3917 on Friday August 24, 2007 @11:55AM
(#46215)
"It makes sense that people who understand a medium will have the best ideas for what to do with it."
I think it makes sense to differentiate between ideas and style. For example, many of the most famous guitar players / trumpet players / musicians in general were self taught. I heard an interview with James Taylor where he said he doesn't even know how to read music. And Miles Davis only played like he did because he learned on a broken trumpet.
(This isn't meant to be a metaphor for hacking, but rather to point out that there is something called style that exists outside of the cognitive layer.)
It makes sense that the guys with the most interesting styles were the ones who were mostly self-taught.
At the cognitive level, it makes sense that the guys with the best ideas are those are
A) most familiar with the medium.
B) Familiar with other similar mediums they can draw from.
But a lot of people don't make their money through novel ideas so much as taking other people's ideas and adding the sex. Which seems to be more of a style thing than a cognitive thing.
I think it makes sense to differentiate between ideas and style. For example, many of the most famous guitar players / trumpet players / musicians in general were self taught. I heard an interview with James Taylor where he said he doesn't even know how to read music. And Miles Davis only played like he did because he learned on a broken trumpet.
(This isn't meant to be a metaphor for hacking, but rather to point out that there is something called style that exists outside of the cognitive layer.)
It makes sense that the guys with the most interesting styles were the ones who were mostly self-taught.
At the cognitive level, it makes sense that the guys with the best ideas are those are
A) most familiar with the medium.
B) Familiar with other similar mediums they can draw from.
But a lot of people don't make their money through novel ideas so much as taking other people's ideas and adding the sex. Which seems to be more of a style thing than a cognitive thing.