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Ask HN: Single-person creations that have stood the test of time?

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Re: Ask HN: Single-person creations that have stood the test of time?

#172

Post by AlwaysRock »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #152
ptudan wrote: post #132

I'd say literature come to mind the most. A Tale of Two Cities, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Beowulf, Pride and Prejudice were the first ones that come to mind, though there are of course many more. Wish I knew more of the non-western classics

This is such a fascinating observation to me. Why has literature largely resisted team based creation? Writing teams exist for other mediums, but literature is almost exclusively written by a single creator who then loops others in after the work is completed.

I guess it depends on how you view this. Almost all books are edited by someone professionally. So it's not the sole work of the author. They are also published and marketed and yada yada. If you say okay all that stuff and even editing doesnt count you still have huge best sellers that are team based works.

All those book for sale at your grocery store? They sell massive copies and are not written by the author. Douglas Preston, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and all those romance novels... A lot of those are written by someone AND someone else. In practice they are written by someone else and they slap a big name on it to sell copies. Those books keep the literature world running even if they are not great art.

Literature already is team based.

Re: Ask HN: Single-person creations that have stood the test of time?

#174

Post by revax »

asddubs wrote: post #136
Turing_Machine wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. "And did you mine the sand and process the silicon for that computer? I don't think so."

hold on now, don't tell me you were using preexisting atoms to facilitate your art? I guess all great artists really do steal

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe.

Re: Ask HN: Single-person creations that have stood the test of time?

#176

Post by samatman »

aerique wrote: post #78
vincentmarle wrote: post #40

Javascript (created by Brendan Eich in 10 days)

Using Common Lisp.

I would love some references on this, as it's the first I've heard of it! I know Brendan Eich was hired to embed Scheme in Navigator, and always presumed that he whipped up the Java-flavored prototype language we all know and, have feelings about, by using Scheme in both senses: that is, as the VM/semantic basis and as the development language.

Re: Ask HN: Single-person creations that have stood the test of time?

#179

Post by justin66 »

jcims wrote: post #98

An intern I met a few years back built a Farnsworth fusor while he was in high school. He showed me pictures of it in operation, complete with some really cool shots of the plasma. It occurred to me a few years later that the helium atoms he snapped together will likely survive until they are swallowed up by a black hole or maybe have a front row seat to a supernova or gamma ray burst. So likely hundreds of billions…

It'll be a bit of an anti-climax, compared to some of that stuff. Those helium atoms are likely to be fuel for our sun somewhere along the line when it's burning down and becoming a white dwarf. Our star isn't big enough to do the supernova thing.
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