For such questions, Taboo the word things hinge on. Try asking and answering without using the word "art". I think you'll find it comes down to arguing about th

For such questions, Taboo the word things hinge on. Try asking and answering without using the word "art". I think you'll find it comes down to arguing about the definition of the word "art", which isn't very useful. Of course, software and algorithms can be inspiring and fantastic. Who cares about arbitrary clarifications? I particularly loved the C-Store (spawned Vertica) and H-Store (spawned VoltDB) papers. Clear ideas, demonstrated well. There's also a paper and code on using SIMD to implement fast integer decompression that I found pretty cool. Or some of the code used in old games for performance, like stuff Carmack did. Heck, even learning a new programming style can be impressive. I recall the distinct feeling of awe when I first understood the F# pipe operator: let (|>) x f = f x So simple, but requires partial application to work, and enables so much. Or, since we're on this site, look into the Y Combinator. Getting that for the first time was a thrill!