The Poetry Of Programming

Lumpish Scholar writes "Sun's Richard Gabriel (possibly the only person with both a Ph.D. in computer science and an MFA in poetry) talks about "the connections between creativity, software, and poetry": "People say, 'Well, how come we can't build software the way we build bridges?' The answer is that we've been building bridges for thousands of years, and while we can make incremental improvements to bridges, the fact is that every bridge is like some other bridge that's been built.... But in software ... we're rolling out -- if not the first -- at most the seventh or eighth version. We've only been building software for 50 years, and almost every time we're creating something new.""

Comments

The "only"?

[sphealey]

I would have to seriously question the statement that Mr. Gabriel is "possibly the only person with a Ph.D in Computer Science and an MFA in poetry". Many computer people I have met have a lifelong fascination with language and literature. Particularly the academic types who pursue Ph.D's. I would guess that there are a fair number of people out there with that combination of degrees.

sPh

Re:I'm curious about wheel reinvention

[Bodrius]

The approach to studying physics is also replicating well-known experiments with shoddy equipment, no experience, and predicted results.

This is not to educate scientist to repeat the same experiments over and over again. It's just that you cannot be expected to understand complex physics and create new experiments for new theories if you haven't seen and tried the building blocks first-hand.

They don't teach you to solve the Towers of Hanoi because it's a "common problem". They teach you to use recursion to solve problems, and to recognize a "recursion problem" by its characteristics, by using Towers of Hanoi as a common example.