Mozart Could've Been an Engineer - Music + Code

Would you hire an opera singer to build your website? A pianist to build your mobile app? After this talk, you might not think it’s a crazy idea.

As I transitioned from professional opera singer to software engineer, I was blown away by the many parallels between music and code. During this talk, you’ll learn about these parallels by examining the similarities in syntax, structure, and learning process. We’ll compare “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to a “Hello, World” app, and we’ll see how Bach might have coded a React Todo app.

Through these examples, we’ll see how musical training strengthens pattern recognition, problem solving and collaboration, helping us become better software engineers.

Warning: parts of this talk may be sung. Yes, you may bring your own instruments.

Transcript

1. Mozart Could’ve Been an Engineer
   Music + Code
   

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2. Catherine Meyers
   @ccmeyers324
   cmeyers@mavenlink.com
   We’re Hiring!!!
   mavenlink.com/careers
   Software Engineer
   slides: bit.ly/music-code
   

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3. Studies on Musical Training and the Brain
   

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4. Cold, Hard #funfacts!
   • Pianists have a more symmetrical central sulcus, the part of the
   brain that determines right/left handedness 1
   • Learning to play an instrument is linked to a higher IQ 2
   • Music education is associated with enhanced ability to process
   speech and language 3
   • IBM used to recruit music-majors to hire as programmers 4
   1. Watson, Alan H D. “What studying musicians tell us about motor control of the hand.“ School of Biosciences, Cardiff University. http://
   www.musicandhealth.co.uk/articles/WatsonReview06.pdf
   2. Schellenberg, E. Glenn. “Long-Term Positive Associations Between Music Lessons and IQ.” Journal of Educational Psychology. http://
   www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3psygs/JEdPsych2006.pdf
   3. Habibi, Assai et.al. “Neural correlates of accelerated auditory processing in children engaged in music training”. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.
   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929315301122
   4. Luke-Ebbeler, Merrilee. “Why are so many software developers also musicians?”. https://teamgaslight.com/blog/why-are-so-many-software-developers-
   also-musicians
   

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5. Who the Heck am I??
   

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8. Opera Singer => Software Engineer???
   WAT???
   

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10. Break it down now!
    

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11. var myLanguage = "JavaScript";
    function myFunc(language) {
    alert(language + “ is the coolest!”);
    }
    myFunc(myLanguage);
    

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17. import React, { PropTypes } from 'react'
    const Todo = ({ onClick, completed, text }) => (
    onClick ={onClick}
    style={{
    textDecoration: completed ? ‘line-through' : 'none'
    }}
    >
    {text}
    
    )
    Todo.propTypes = {
    onClick: PropTypes.func.isRequired,
    completed: PropTypes.bool.isRequired,
    text: PropTypes.string.isRequired
    }
    export default Todo
    from: https://github.com/reactjs/redux/blob/master/examples/todos
    

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18. PATTERNS
    

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19. var myLanguage = "JavaScript";
    function myFunc(language) {
    alert(language + “ is the coolest!”);
    }
    myFunc(myLanguage);
    

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20. store
    database
    reducer
    action
    reducer
    reducer
    action
    action
    action
    action
    action
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    component
    

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22. Break it down now!
    

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28. Information Processing
    

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31. Music Education and the Corpus Callosum
    image source: http://ohiofetalmedicine.org/
    source: Collins, Anita. “How playing an instrument benefits your brain.”
    http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins#watch
    

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32. A B
    Problem Solving
    

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33. Never,
    never,
    never
    give up.
    Winston Churchill
    

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34. concept introduced by Carol Dweck
    

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35. Collaboration
    

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36. Why Does this Matter?
    • Don’t let untapped resources pass you by
    • Diverse backgrounds are an asset
    • Music education matters
    • Don’t be afraid to get into (or back into) music
    

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37. Questions and Thank You!
    @ccmeyers324
    cmeyers@mavenlink.com
    mavenlink.com/careers
    

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