4 ms·

Interesting side-topic: how many hackers out there are also musicians, and what do you play? I started playing violin when I was 2, but haven't played so much s

by tipjoy 19y ago

Interesting side-topic: how many hackers out there are also musicians, and what do you play? I started playing violin when I was 2, but haven't played so much since leaving college. Maybe we could get a quartet together or something... you know, "I'm starting a hacker quartet, BUT I'm still going to work on my startup" :)

brianmckenzie 19y ago
Violin was my first instrument, but I've mostly played guitar for the past ten years or so. I guess I was a musician long before I was a hacker, and I see a lot of similarities between the two - the variety of things you can do, the amount of time it takes to become decent at either, etc. Surprisingly enough I've never tried to bring the two together. Signal modelling/processing software...talk about 'hard problems'!
- ivankirigin 19y ago
  A friend of mine was an electrical engineer and a drummer. For a senior project he made some electronic drums. Bessel functions are hard :)
- nostrademons 19y ago
  I took a similar path - violin for 9 years, then switched to guitar when I was about 16 (to be cool, of course). I didn't completely drop the violin, but guitar was my main instrument for the later part of high school. But then I picked the violin up again for All States my senior year, and kept doing it for college. Surprisingly it's violin that stuck - I still play a couple times a week, while I haven't touched my guitar in close to a year. I've also dabbled in a bunch of other instruments - 3 years of clarinet in middle school, enough viola to play and (barely) read music, picked up a fife and tin whistle in Williamsburg, reasonably fluent on bass guitar, and I've been trying to teach myself piano over the past couple years, with only slight success.
benhoyt 19y ago
:-) Piano and voice for me, but the latter not very well. One of the reasons I like Douglas Hofstadter is his intertwining of computers and music.
Goladus 19y ago
Piano and voice. I played saxaphone in high school and studied theory in college.
rms 19y ago
I play the drums and I played snare drum in high school marching band. I wish I owned an electronic drum set, I'd enjoy writing some beats sometimes.

by tipjoy 19y ago

brianmckenzie 19y ago

Violin was my first instrument, but I've mostly played guitar for the past ten years or so. I guess I was a musician long before I was a hacker, and I see a lot of similarities between the two - the variety of things you can do, the amount of time it takes to become decent at either, etc. Surprisingly enough I've never tried to bring the two together. Signal modelling/processing software...talk about 'hard problems'!

ivankirigin 19y ago
A friend of mine was an electrical engineer and a drummer. For a senior project he made some electronic drums. Bessel functions are hard :)
nostrademons 19y ago
I took a similar path - violin for 9 years, then switched to guitar when I was about 16 (to be cool, of course). I didn't completely drop the violin, but guitar was my main instrument for the later part of high school. But then I picked the violin up again for All States my senior year, and kept doing it for college. Surprisingly it's violin that stuck - I still play a couple times a week, while I haven't touched my guitar in close to a year. I've also dabbled in a bunch of other instruments - 3 years of clarinet in middle school, enough viola to play and (barely) read music, picked up a fife and tin whistle in Williamsburg, reasonably fluent on bass guitar, and I've been trying to teach myself piano over the past couple years, with only slight success.

benhoyt 19y ago

:-) Piano and voice for me, but the latter not very well. One of the reasons I like Douglas Hofstadter is his intertwining of computers and music.

Goladus 19y ago

Piano and voice. I played saxaphone in high school and studied theory in college.

rms 19y ago

I play the drums and I played snare drum in high school marching band. I wish I owned an electronic drum set, I'd enjoy writing some beats sometimes.