The Quality, Longevity, Billy Joel, and Beethoven

Internet Todo List for Enthusiastic Thinkers, S2E04

There is a quality I want the things I code and write to embody. I'm not entirely sure what that quality is yet, how to put it in words, or should put it in words. At the best, it's a "quality without a name", in the sense that Christopher Alexander outlined in The Timeless Way of Building. At it's worse, the quality is my current guess on how to write interesting ideas well and how to write good programs.

I've been thinking about longevity as one of those qualities. After pondering what makes longevity, it's sunk in how rare real, multi-decade longevity is. We think of our society as one of disposable physical commodities, but I have sneakers and shower puffs that I've had longer than some of my code has been in production. When you create internet, most things peak early and then fade from memory.

Making lasting stuff is super-hard. Credit is due to those like Beethoven, Fitzgerald, Picasso, etc. that make things that are household names from generation to generation.

In the happy serendipity department, Billy Joel did an interview with the New York Times that ended up touching a lot on the longevity of his music, why he doesn't record anymore, and whether he'll even tour again:

Everybody is different. Some writers can write reams of great books and then J. D. Salinger wrote just a few. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies. They were all phenomenal. Mozart wrote some 40 symphonies, and they were all phenomenal. That doesn’t mean Beethoven was a lesser writer, it’s just some guys are capable of more productivity, some guys take more time. Mozart pisses me off because he’s like a naturally gifted athlete, you listen to Mozart and you go: “Of course. It all came easy to him.” Beethoven you hear the struggle in it. Look at his manuscripts, and there’s reams of scratched-out music that he hated. He stops and he starts. I love that about Beethoven, his humanity shows in his music. Mozart was almost inhuman, unhuman.

I'm more of a Beethoven guy myself. I love to hear the struggle in his music. Mozart's is great, but you can hear how it's sitting on the fence between court music and music for music's sake.

I'd also love for Billy Joel to go on tour so I could see him live. Maybe he could get Paul McCartney's sound guy!