[gotofritz]

> Code is punk. Go start a band.

Although I understand the spirit behind this, code is most certainly NOT punk. That's what the JS / PHP / Flash script kiddies from the early 00s wrote. Or rather, it shouldn't be punk if you want to build something that is reusable, maintanable, and solid.

The sad reality is that code is jazz - you can get started with Autumn Leaves or the blues, but if you want to go far you better be prepared to learn tons of theory.

But I agree, you don't necessarily need to do it upfront.

[mercer]

Why isn't code more like 'music', so punk, jazz, or some other genre entirely?

Sometimes I wonder if much of the discussion/confusion that we have about 'programmers' and 'programming' arises because we treat it as a something more specific than it is.

It would be like blogging, discussing, identifying with and arguing about 'writing' without distinguishing between novelists, administrative workers, legal workers, academics, poets, instruction manual writers, translators, and so on.

[gotofritz]

You are missing the point.

OP used "code is punk" as a metaphor for "just do it without getting bogged down by theory".

I have changed his metaphor to "code is jazz" to express that he's wrong, you DO need to learn a lot of the theory.

I am not quite sure how what you are saying comes into this.

[rzzzt]

"Country and Western", as said above.