Hacker News Reader

As a huge Miles Davis fan I was very tempted to upvote this but refrained from doing so. My general rule of thumb is to not upvote/comment on anything unless it is absolutely relevant to HN's outlook (I'm obviously making an exception for this comment). Anything it takes to keep HN the way it is.

View on HN

HN is eclectic the way it is. The guidelines call for anything of intellectual interest. The bar tends to be higher for atypical material, that's all.

This piece is good because it's a great artist speaking frankly about his craft. It's surprisingly vivid. I'm not a jazz fan and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

You can learn more from a great artist in a different field than from an average worker in your own.

Agreed, but I'm heartened to see that some subset of HN shares at least one of my life-long interests. I found this highly entertaining.

And really, I don't think it's much of stretch to liken a great jazz musician to a great developer. The flow, improvisation and interpretation in the music. The way notes and bars can come together to become something greater than the sum of their parts. You can find all that in great code too :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com