LISP, Jazz,
Aïkido
Didier Verna
My philosophy of life
Beauty: being able to evolve comfortably within a set of
constraints, which begins with accepting their
existence.
Fun: being able to break those constraints at will, and
then going back to them at will.
Unification: drawing bridges between (a priori)
unrelated domains, in the search for the essence of all
things.
2/7
LISP, Jazz,
Aïkido
Didier Verna
Where is the beauty ?
LISP Writing code in any language can be beautiful,
provided you know how to adapt your own ideas to the
language’s constraints.
Jazz Playing a song in any kind of music can be
beautiful, provided you know how to adapt your own
ideas to the music’s constraints.
3/7
LISP, Jazz,
Aïkido
Didier Verna
Where is the fun ?
LISP You can adapt the language to your own ideas
instead of just having to adapt your own ideas to it,
hence effectively breaking the rules or ordinary
languages (“programmable programming language”).
Jazz Improvisation (the essence of Jazz), lets you
adapt the music to your own ideas instead of forcing
you to adapt your ideas to it, effectively breaking the
rules of ordinary music.
4/7
LISP, Jazz,
Aïkido
Didier Verna
Unification
LISP Because it’s a meta-language, LISP is imperative,
procedural, functional, object-oriented, declarative,
anything you want.
Jazz Because Jazz is not a kind of music, but a way to
address all kinds of music, in Jazz there is jazz,
classical, pop, rock, hard-rock, rap, electro, anything
you want.
5/7
