Dan Bricklin @danb@qoto.org

I found this dive into the mechanics jarring because to me, as one who likes music but has no clue how to compose it, it was like a magician revealing the mundane, esoteric details of a trick in the middle of the trick itself. 8/

The song writer then acknowledges that the listener probably does not care for the details. But, like so many engrossed in their craft, the writer then goes on to explain the details in the language of the craft even if you do not want to hear it nor understand what it means. (How many times have you watched other people's eyes glaze over as you explained something you cared about?) 7/

However, the product usually is not successful and you know that likelihood while building it. When something succeeds it is a wonderful surprise. You try, often in vain, to somehow understand why it succeeded to help you and others in the future. Engineers love to explain to others how to do things, even to a fault.) 6/

(People often ask me if I knew if VisiCalc was going to be such an important product. I answer that of course I felt that way, but I have felt that way about so many other products that were nowhere near as influential. As a creator, one usually feels what you are doing is special. That is one of the things that drives you to work so hard and long on it. 5/

Here is what I hear as one who loves to create things:

The verse starts with a song writer telling a story about when King David (who tradition says wrote the Biblical Psalms, many of which were explicitly listed as songs to be song and have been popular for thousands of years) wrote something that was especially successful (pleased the Lord). He did not expect it to be the big hit it was (with reference to the baffled king). 4/

(For those that don't know me, here is where I am coming from: I am a product creator. I helped develop some arguably successful products, including the trailblazing spreadsheet #VisiCalc in 1979, the popular software prototyping tool Dan Bricklin's Demo Program in 1985, and the early iPad ink app NoteTakerHD in 2010. Also, of course, many less successful ones.) 3/

Why is the line "…you don't really care for music…" there? And why does it go on to break a third wall and reveal some mechanics of writing a beloved song? 2/

This is an engineer's reaction to the first verse of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

Last night, while watching the documentary "Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song" on Netflix, I kept being struck by the first verse: "Now I've heard there was a secret cord / That David played, and it pleased the Lord / But you don't really care for music, do ya? / It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth / The minor fall, the major lift / The baffled king composing Hallelujah". 1/

Let’s not miss this anniversary: According to @mkapor over on the birdsite, this past January 26 was the 40th anniversary of shipping Lotus 1-2-3. Congrats to Mitch, Jonathan Sachs, Ben Rosen, and all the many others involved.

Aww. May Jeff Beck's memory be a blessing. One of my early, vivid concert memories is seeing him at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia in 1968. I've remembered watching his incredible playing ever since. He had this singer in tight leather pants who swung the mic stand around: Rod Stewart. (I read that 10 Years After also played that day.) Was anybody else in the audience then? #jeffbeck

I have not sent many toots since starting on Mastodon (but will eventually), but I have been slowly amassing followers. They appear to be the type of people I've tried to address when I post. (Techie with feelings and appreciate big-picture.) This makes me happy. This is not just people I've followed here following back.

I've been wondering how people are finding me. I did add a link in my bird-site profile, but no post there about that.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Brooks about Fred Brooks: "The most important single decision I ever made was to change the IBM 360 series from a 6-bit byte to an 8-bit byte, thereby enabling the use of lowercase letters. That change propagated everywhere." May his memory be a blessing.