
The Jacob’s Ladder of Coding - franzb
https://medium.com/@thi.ng/the-jacob-s-ladder-of-coding-4b12477a26c1
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yeureka
Creative coding, as in, producing visuals and audio with code is what drew me
into programming initially.

I wish that like the author I could devote 100% of my working time to this,
but I am still lucky to be able to do a bit of it in my spare time.

Some of the people in this space that I admire:

[http://www.iquilezles.org](http://www.iquilezles.org)

[http://www.mine-control.com](http://www.mine-control.com)

~~~
cjcenizal
Awesome! Creative coding is how I got into programming, too
([http://cenizal.com/projects/vfx_portfolio/](http://cenizal.com/projects/vfx_portfolio/))

~~~
lisowski
Cool website! But your scroll is super messed up. On my macbook scrolling up
and down has no effect, but pinch and depinch with scroll the page.

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hugozap
How to bring back the creative atmosphere of old school computing?, Is it
possible?

I feel that the abundance of choice and tools is what is having a negative
impact on creativity. Somehow the non-ending stream of new
tools/techniques/languages/frameworks is limiting our ability to create. It
should be the other way but it's not. It seems like right now we are chasing
the (non existent) perfect toolchain, and people are jumping from one tech
stack to another without really producing valuable things.

The big problem is the short attention span that is caused by abundance of
choice. When people jump to a new technology it will be fun because of the
novelty, but the possibility of mastery is lost because everytime one has to
ditch a lot of the knowledge that was starting to accumulate. This is
specially bad in Web development, but it affects most of the computing areas.

We don't feel confortable embracing limitations and sadly that's a key
ingredient of creativity. We prefer to spend long hours researching another
tools. How can we "simulate" the lack of options that old school computing
had? Is it possible anymore?

~~~
danellis
I've only skimmed the article (it's in my Pocket for later), but I think the
author gives the answer: embedded programming. You can make your environment
as constrained as you want then.

~~~
Kristine1975
Or demo programming. Program for the C64
([http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66646](http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66646)),
use max 1K for the executable
([http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66619](http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66619))
et.al.

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cromwellian
Boy, I relate directly to this. I grew up essentially in the ghettos of
Baltimore, and my first computer was a Vic-20. I had only a single ripped up
6502 manual, and one of Vic Games programming. I had no datasette in the
beginning, and so I started with graph paper, coloring in squares, and
computing graphics. I PEEK'ed and POKE'ed stuff directly until I got some
primitive stuff going. Later, by reading magazines, I was able to enter by
hand, the code for my first machine language monitor, from there things got
much better, although I had to be extremely careful not to crash my machine or
turn it off, until I could afford a datasette.

Eventually, I got a C64, learned cracking, demo programming, NTSC fixing, and
that was pretty much my gateway out of a bad neighborhood into the comfortable
spot at Google I have today.

Here's an old compilation I made of some crack/intro screens I made for
various groups in the 80s.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aViXXbUg_yU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aViXXbUg_yU)

~~~
yeureka
I grew up in a similar environment, saw lots of friends and family destroy
their lives out of boredom and general bad company.

One of the reasons I hold so much affection for my childhood computers ( Atari
800XL, C64 and the Amiga ) are because they probably saved me from a sad
destiny and gave me the opportunity to have a nice profession.

If it wasn't for those machines I might not have been where I am today.

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Hortinstein
> Lesson learned: Language skills, natural and coded ones, are gateways,
> opening paths not just for more expression, but also to paths in life.

This is a fantastic quote. I lived in Tokyo for 3 years and while I picked up
some of the language and had a phenomenal time, I saw friends who were fluent
in Japanese and the experiences and interactions they had and was and am still
extremely jealous.

~~~
bitwize
A goodly number of Japanese people are over the moon to see a gaikokujin
learning their language and would readily supply help.

I think I gained a few levels in Japanese by spending two weeks in Osaka,
getting drunk and chatting with locals.

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such_a_casual
As someone learning lisp for fun, with no expectations, this article was
inspirational and reinforced my faith that I am undertaking a worthwhile
endeavor, if only to change the way I think about programming.

~~~
veddox
Did that last year :-) Let me tell you, it's absolutely worth it!

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alvern
The first six paragraphs made me a bit teary. I can't relate my own coming of
age in computing with having to deal with the socio-political implications of
the Berlin Wall.

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aplorbust
Author shows a broad knowledge of what programming entails and what it can
offer, not limited to writing programs. Inspirational.

