Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software

by Scott Rosenberg

“When you learn about computer science,” Lanier said in a 2003 interview, “you learn about the file as if it were an element of nature, like a photon. That’s a dangerous mentality. Even if you really can’t do anything about it, and you really can’t practically write software without files right now, it’s still important not to let your brain be bamboozled. You have to remember what’s a human invention and what isn’t.”

He discovered that we ask more work of students who want to become writers and poets than of those who aim to become software developers: They must study with mentors, they must present their work for regular criticism by peers in workshops, and they’re expected to labor over multiple revisions of the same work. “I think we need to be ashamed of this,” Gabriel says. “What we put forward as computer education is a farce.”

“Designers should all take some time and learn programming,” John Anderson declared one day over lunch. “Then they won’t keep proposing such really difficult things.” “But then they wouldn’t come up with great ideas,” Lisa Dusseault replied.