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> 99.5% of programming consists of gluing together calls to library functions. A common complaint at Google was "all I do is copy one protobuf to another". An

> 99.5% of programming consists of gluing together calls to library functions. A common complaint at Google was "all I do is copy one protobuf to another". And I think that sums up programming -- that really is all we think we do. For example, a triple-A game just reads a stream of keyboard events, mouse events, and network packets, and emits streams of video frames, sound samples, and network packets. The rest is just details! That is obviously not true, of course. We find the interfacing the most tedious, annoying, and painful part and overestimate how much time we spend doing it. Interfacing with anything is painful -- I had the idea for this comment in an instant, but I'm spending 5 minutes thinking of words and sentences, figuring out what order they should be in, and commanding my fingers to press keys on my keyboard to get it to you. But it would be incorrect to say that "99.5% of human cognition is convincing your fingers to press keys", even if that's a strict blocker to disseminating your idea on the Internet. What that means is that tools can help us eliminate the tedious parts. The fact that tedious parts haven't gone away just means that there is more work to do. When the tools start doing what we need, you'll stop seeing the complaint that all programming is is moving data from one library to another. You'll start seeing the complaint "all I do is stare at the screen figuring out what to build."

Lamad123 5y ago
True and Shakespeare spent his life only gluing words together!! The only valuable thing he did was coining a few new words when he dared chasing weirdness!
- tmsh 5y ago
  Shakespeare invented how we think in post-Shakespeare English by transforming language, not to mention what is important to focus on in life (and sometimes the importance of focusing on important things). 99.9% of programming is a lot more of just plugging together library and API calls. We plug them together to user interfaces which is the apex of the age we live in: technology, empowering people to change the world in exciting new ways (as hackneyed as that sounds). It's just true. Our age involves a lot of globalization (in the Peter Thiel sense), but it's still very squarely part of a technology revolution. Viaweb might've been a way to just make money for the most part. But that's not what impactful SaaS or other software is about. What the APIs / library calls are being connected to is of utmost importance. And similarly, the ideas that Shakespeare came up with - the hundreds of ideas, that help us focus on what's most important to live a meaningful life, those are also helpful. And yes the language plays a role. That said there is a grain of truth to this parent comment and PG's post. But there's also a lot missing. Both words and C++/Java-esque languages are super basic. But with enough of a fixed idea in mind, over time, they're good enough for getting at some really important things. And that is what matters.

Lamad123 5y ago

True and Shakespeare spent his life only gluing words together!! The only valuable thing he did was coining a few new words when he dared chasing weirdness!

tmsh 5y ago
Shakespeare invented how we think in post-Shakespeare English by transforming language, not to mention what is important to focus on in life (and sometimes the importance of focusing on important things). 99.9% of programming is a lot more of just plugging together library and API calls. We plug them together to user interfaces which is the apex of the age we live in: technology, empowering people to change the world in exciting new ways (as hackneyed as that sounds). It's just true. Our age involves a lot of globalization (in the Peter Thiel sense), but it's still very squarely part of a technology revolution. Viaweb might've been a way to just make money for the most part. But that's not what impactful SaaS or other software is about. What the APIs / library calls are being connected to is of utmost importance. And similarly, the ideas that Shakespeare came up with - the hundreds of ideas, that help us focus on what's most important to live a meaningful life, those are also helpful. And yes the language plays a role. That said there is a grain of truth to this parent comment and PG's post. But there's also a lot missing. Both words and C++/Java-esque languages are super basic. But with enough of a fixed idea in mind, over time, they're good enough for getting at some really important things. And that is what matters.