Piano or Programming: Which Should I Learn?

[Lapidus]

I want to learn something new. Something that takes time to accomplish and that would 'enrich' me somehow. I thought about learning programming or learning playing the piano. I tried both at a very elementary level and find them both fascinating, but only would have the time (and energy!) for one of them to learn.

What would you learn if you had to choose between these two? What is the greater learning experience, and what will expand my horizon more?

I know it is a stupid and very personal question that someone only can answer for himself, but I ask it anyway. After all, it's general discussion forum!

 

[Andre]

It all depends on your passion.

When I was young I wanted to learn piano, but there was no way to get that in.

In the 80ies, people called me an eldery whizkid for the games and administrative sofware I made on the Atari ST system. It reduced the workload of my dad and my brother in law to some 25%.

But that distracted much from the quest for the truth, as a programmer you're trapped in a box imo. You can explore the whole box and you can even get imaginary outside the box in an imaginary world. That is called modeling. But you won't discover what the truth is. Mammoths are much more fun.

 

[dipole]

I know how to program, and I wouldn't trade it for knowing the piano, but I'd love to know how to play piano!

Programming is kind of like playing with legos, you can make lots of cool stuff, but at the end of the day you're playing within a set of rules someone else has created. Music I think is much more personalized.

 

[Dembadon]

Learn to program, then learn the piano. You can use the money you make from your job to pay for piano lessons. =]

 

[gmax137]

Oddly enough, just this morning in the shower I had a thought, that it would be cool to learn the piano. I have no musical experience, I just thought it would be a new, interesting, and fun challenge.