Walkie

Sunday, 17 July 2005.

As a child, when I was first learning to program, the thing I always wanted to do was create a virtual human of some kind. At the time I was unable to do it, but I recently decided to try it again. Now, I find it’s almost trivial.

I think the reason for that is that in the intervening years I learned a powerful technique, which completely changes the way you program: recursion. Iteration is powerful, but it’s very limited compared to recursion.

In the same way, there are other levels of power in programming: continuations, closures, et cetera. I think that similar levels apply to other creative outlets as well: music, art, and so on. For example, with music, you first think in terms of notes; then, in chords; then, in chord changes. The abstraction allows one to think faster and act more powerfully.

Lavender, the Lonely Pink Elephant