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> Although Blow, who is now forty-four, was a wunderkind programmer—one of his jobs before Braid’s launch was with I.B.M.—he chose to design each puzzle in The

by jack9 11y ago

> Although Blow, who is now forty-four, was a wunderkind programmer—one of his jobs before Braid’s launch was with I.B.M.—he chose to design each puzzle in The Witness not by algorithm but by hand, usually on graph paper... Wat? It's not just that he "worked for IBM" but that's an literary abortion. Either there's nothing more to demonstrate his early promise, or the writer thought an editorial aside using dashes is a thing.

song 11y ago
It's funny how mainstream media still associate working for IBM as being a "wunderkind programmer". Not really my experience at all I must say... But then the prevailing wisdom of "no-one ever gets fired for buying ibm" still rings true in a lot of places I guess..
- imron 11y ago
  If you look at some of his design and implementation talks on Braid, then it's quite clear that if not a "wunderkind programmer" he's still clearly very talented in this regard.
  - SolarNet 11y ago
    His dev blog on The Witness also has some technical articles by him that show he's quite capable. It is a custom engine after all, architected mostly by him, with a few other programmers. For example: http://the-witness.net/news/2011/12/engine-tech-concurrent-world-editing/ http://the-witness.net/news/2011/12/engine-tech-concurrent-w...
    - mercer 11y ago
      I love the image this article paints of his approach to programming. Somewhat (quite?) unorthodox, but from what I can tell ultimately very pragmatic.
  - song 11y ago
    Oh I'm not saying that Jonathan Blow is or is not a talented developer... I don't know that, haven't listened to his talks so I reserve my judgement. I'm just commenting on the fact that Medias still see working for IBM as being a sign of talent when I don't think that's necessarily the case. I find it interesting that the perception of big corporation like IBM continue to influence the way people see employees associated with those corporations.

by jack9 11y ago

song 11y ago

It's funny how mainstream media still associate working for IBM as being a "wunderkind programmer". Not really my experience at all I must say... But then the prevailing wisdom of "no-one ever gets fired for buying ibm" still rings true in a lot of places I guess..

imron 11y ago
If you look at some of his design and implementation talks on Braid, then it's quite clear that if not a "wunderkind programmer" he's still clearly very talented in this regard.
- SolarNet 11y ago
  His dev blog on The Witness also has some technical articles by him that show he's quite capable. It is a custom engine after all, architected mostly by him, with a few other programmers. For example: http://the-witness.net/news/2011/12/engine-tech-concurrent-world-editing/ http://the-witness.net/news/2011/12/engine-tech-concurrent-w...
  - mercer 11y ago
    I love the image this article paints of his approach to programming. Somewhat (quite?) unorthodox, but from what I can tell ultimately very pragmatic.
- song 11y ago
  Oh I'm not saying that Jonathan Blow is or is not a talented developer... I don't know that, haven't listened to his talks so I reserve my judgement. I'm just commenting on the fact that Medias still see working for IBM as being a sign of talent when I don't think that's necessarily the case. I find it interesting that the perception of big corporation like IBM continue to influence the way people see employees associated with those corporations.