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Discussion on: I'm a co-founder of dev.to (this website), ask me anything!

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Jesse Ditson

A lot of engineers I know (myself included) started out as musicians. What relationship (if any) do you think music has to writing code?

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Jess Lee

For instrument-playing musicians I always thought an 'obvious' relationship was the ability to play notes/type keys quickly. But that doesn't account for our vocalists and percussionists that might not be using their fingers like mad, that have also become engineers.

I think the biggest relationship is how code is written and how music is composed. Both can be broken down into smaller parts and both require attention to detail but a high level understanding of the bigger picture. Every developer has their own style and interpretation when approaching a problem, as does every musician.

Here's a huff post article that was an interesting read.

I will say that I use the same profanities when I'm stuck on a coding problem as I would when practicing a chopin etude.

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Ben Halpern

My older brother Mikey recently took up coding in his early 40s. He's been a hardcore musician his whole life. I think there's also a similar thread on one's capacity to really try hard at something. Trying, failing, not giving up, and enjoying the journey either way seem to be skills that benefit both coders and musicians.

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Andy Zhao (he/him)

This thread made me realize that I had the same exact feeling of frustration when starting to learn music and starting to learn coding.