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Ask HN: Who is the best programmer in the world?

7 points by huherto 16y ago

ecommando 16y ago
That's like asking "Who's the best prostitute?" It's totally subjective. As an example, for 3d game engine design, clearly Tim Sweeney of Epic Games is one of the top developers, if not THE top developer, in the field today. TODAY. That said, I wouldn't hire him to write an operating system.
nudge 16y ago
I think there must be very few examples of groups of things for which 'best' is a useful word. What's the best car? What's the best country? Who's the best singer? What's the best beer? Which is the best musical instrument? Who's the best ever artist? Who's the best ever scientist? As a step towards a more answerable version of your question, how about this: What are some orderings by which we can evaluate programmers? Who comes at the top of those? Who comes at or near the top of several?
larrykubin 16y ago
John Carmack
- arn 16y ago
  Carmack was the first to come to my mind in terms of individual programmer notoriety. In his day, he was probably considered by many to be the best programmer in his field. Part of that had to do with pushing limits of the hardware at the time and also shipping code. With the speediness of computers now, this sort of raw optimization is less celebrated. Also, games and other projects have tended to become massive team efforts, harder to pinpoint to one great programmer.
brudgers 16y ago
Best measured by dollars - Bill Gates.
- rick_2047 16y ago
  He is also best measured by popularity I think.
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  >Best [programmer] measured by dollars - Bill Gates. How many of those dollars did he earn actually programming. Don't get me wrong I think he has been an awesome business man I just don't know how good a programmer he really is. Indeed he may be a most brilliant programmer but still have not really worked as a programmer in earning his fortune?
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
gdulli 16y ago
I can't imagine an internal view of programming that's so much more quantitative than qualitative that it could lead to forming a question like this.
pestaa 16y ago
John Skeet, provided Stack Overflow reputation is creditable.
huherto 16y ago
I know there is no answer for this. But, I am looking for good stories of people that you admire, not only for having created big companies but also for the code they've written.
- benkant 16y ago
  You probably should have asked that question rather than the one you did.

7 points by huherto 16y ago

That's like asking "Who's the best prostitute?" It's totally subjective. As an example, for 3d game engine design, clearly Tim Sweeney of Epic Games is one of the top developers, if not THE top developer, in the field today. TODAY. That said, I wouldn't hire him to write an operating system.

nudge 16y ago

I think there must be very few examples of groups of things for which 'best' is a useful word. What's the best car? What's the best country? Who's the best singer? What's the best beer? Which is the best musical instrument? Who's the best ever artist? Who's the best ever scientist? As a step towards a more answerable version of your question, how about this: What are some orderings by which we can evaluate programmers? Who comes at the top of those? Who comes at or near the top of several?

larrykubin 16y ago

John Carmack

arn 16y ago
Carmack was the first to come to my mind in terms of individual programmer notoriety. In his day, he was probably considered by many to be the best programmer in his field. Part of that had to do with pushing limits of the hardware at the time and also shipping code. With the speediness of computers now, this sort of raw optimization is less celebrated. Also, games and other projects have tended to become massive team efforts, harder to pinpoint to one great programmer.

brudgers 16y ago

Best measured by dollars - Bill Gates.

rick_2047 16y ago
He is also best measured by popularity I think.
pbhjpbhj 16y ago
>Best [programmer] measured by dollars - Bill Gates. How many of those dollars did he earn actually programming. Don't get me wrong I think he has been an awesome business man I just don't know how good a programmer he really is. Indeed he may be a most brilliant programmer but still have not really worked as a programmer in earning his fortune?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

gdulli 16y ago

I can't imagine an internal view of programming that's so much more quantitative than qualitative that it could lead to forming a question like this.

pestaa 16y ago

John Skeet, provided Stack Overflow reputation is creditable.

huherto 16y ago

I know there is no answer for this. But, I am looking for good stories of people that you admire, not only for having created big companies but also for the code they've written.

benkant 16y ago
You probably should have asked that question rather than the one you did.