Before coming to the software world, I was a freelance musician for over 10+ years. I toured and played bass with bands and artists like Albert Lee, Ray Parker, Jr. of Ghostbusters fame, and even was featured on Entertainment Tonight. As a developer now, I look back on some of the concepts I learned to become a successful musician and how they apply to learning software. Truthfully, they are not that different. Lets dive into how the world of music has attempted to overcome a lot of the challenges around learning a new coding language, and see if we can draw some parallels together.

1. Becoming a Polyglot
Programmer
Through the Eyes of a Freelance Musician
@kickinbahkJosiah Mory

2. I Came From the
World of Music

3. Worked as a Sideman

4. Playing Bass for
Artists and Bands
for 10 years

6. Studied Music in
College

7. A place to be exposed
to things I wouldn’t
otherwise study

9. Writing for choirs and
orchestras

10. Different than a
Performance-based
School

11. - most the focus is
how to better play
your instrument

12. kinda like the
difference between a
Boot Camp or
studying Computer
Science

13. One is
generally
more practical

14. The other more
theoretical

15. My college career had a
lot of theory
and I enjoyed it

16. No….Not Music
Theory

17. Okay maybe
that too

18. a little bit…

19. the theory of how
music fits together

20. Can be Many Aspects

21. • Rhythms
• Notes
• Orchestra
• Band

22. My Favorite Focus:
Band

23. interaction between
the Bass and Drums

25. known as
GROOVE

26. Theory of Groove

27. Every Musician
strives for Groove

28. The listener may not
know what it is

29. They typically know when it
ISN’T

30. Different Genres Define it in
Other Ways
Swing
Clave Bubble
Funky

31. All Reference different
Types of Groove

32. “If you gotta ask you'll never know”
- Louie Armstrong

33. To Understand the Groove
You have to Listen

34. Immerse into the
Thinking

35. the Feeling

36. “Experts in a particular field can
often instantly know that something
is right, but they can’t explain why.”
- Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power
of Thinking Without Thinking

37. Immersion
allows reaction

38. Know what others are
doing

39. Informs how my part Interacts
with the rest of the band

40. just Like I immersed
myself in a Style

41. by Listening to
Records

42. Talking with
other Musicians

43. Going to Live shows

44. I immerse Myself
in a programming
Language by:

45. • Podcasts
• Meetups
• Conferences/code Camps

46. great ways to
learn

47. While Those are
Important

48. YOU

49. HAVE

50. TO

51. PRACTICE

52. I wasn’t Born
writing Ruby

53. Just Like I wasn’t
Born Playing a Samba

54. They are Skills I had
to Gain

56. Practice is solving some
small known problem

57. Never on the
Gig

58. Practicing in music
happens at different Speeds

59. start Slow and get
Faster
(Developing finger Dexterity and Reaction)

60. start Fast and go
Slower
(Checking for good Technique)

61. What does this look
like in coding?

62. Solve simple, known
problems

63. to find New and
Unique solutions

64. My Favorite Practice Tool:
Exercism.io

65. Different ways to solve
the Same Problem

66. It Always comes
Back to the time I
give

67. More Valuable than
my Role

68. Understanding
the Goal of the Drummer

69. How can I
complement the rhythm?

70. Play with the Kick
Drum

71. Play off the Kick Drum

72. I thought beyond
my Role

73. To how the music was
Best served

74. Know the Rules…
then
Break them

75. Start Idiomatic

77. I enjoyed this
Process

78. taking Idioms from
other Genres

79. Taking Idioms from
other instruments

80. While they seemed
unique and
creative

81. Using Common
Solutions for One
Language

82. Solving problem
Uniquely in a Different
Language

83. Creativity starts in
knowing the typical
Solution

84. then Solving a
different way

85. Polyglot - using or
knowing multiple
languages

86. Knowledge of Other
Languages Allows Me to
Approach Problems
Differently

87. Allows me to be
involved in the
conversation

88. and How my part
can complement
the others

89. Allows for
communication

90. Rather than a war over
how to achieve a goal

91. More and More
Projects are Polyglot

92. The better I
Understand how my
part fits

93. The better job I can
do to serve the
project

94. Could Be Simply
Where Logic is
Handled

95. • Front-End
• Back-end
• Component

96. OR
What have I learned
from “insert Language”
that I can apply Here

97. Sometimes there
was an opportunity
to learn on the Job

98. More often, I had to
put in the time to learn
it on my own first

99. Before I was ready
to use it on the gig

100. Advantage:

101. Learning on your own
allows you to find
languages which speak
to you

102. As with any time you fall in love,
it’s difficult to explain why.
It (Ruby) just worked the way I work,
and it had enough depth to keep me
interested.
Fast forward 15 years. All that time I’d been
looking for something new that gave me the
same feeling.
- Dave Thomas (on Elixir)

103. I think that people should use
whatever gets them excited.
Pick something, anything, and just try
it. If you don’t like it, try something
else. Humans are all different, and
there’s no single answer here.
- Steve Klabnik (on learning languages)

104. The Languages we
use are just tools

105. Not Religion

106. Or the way to
Enlightenment

107. It’s not the tools that you have
faith in - tools are just tools.
They work or don’t work.
-Steve Jobs

108. Ruby Jobs may not
be Popular Forever

109. Am I the lucky one
that works on a RoR
project for 20 yrs?

110. Is that so lucky?

111. I never wanted
to be part of a
Cover Band

112. I wanted to make
New and
Interesting music

113. Just as it has changed
before, the world
will keep changing

114. At The End of the Day…

115. The value of a
performance is
judged on the way
People feel

116. Our software is
judged on the way
People feel

117. The fact that I
understand ‘groove’ did
not matter to an audience

118. they just want to
Dance

119. or experience
some emotion

120. The people I work
with did appreciate it

121. Software should move
people in the same way

122. They don’t care that I use
Ruby, C#, Rust, Elixir,
Go, C++, Javascript…

123. Okay they may care
about javascript

124. But my knowledge of
Theory

125. Allows me to approach
a problem in better
ways

126. In more Creative
Ways

127. Exploring Other
Languages
Recap:

128. More Valuable than
my Role
Find Creative
Solutions (Break Rules)

129. Communicate with
those I Work
Opens up
Opportunities

130. provide a better
experience for users and
those I work with

131. Thank You!
Hire me :)
kickinbahk.com @kickinbahk

132. Thanks to:
Saron
Yitbarek
Judd
Lillestrand