Symphony separates good developers from great developers

I have often observed that some of the best developers I have met have a background in music. I have done a bit of thinking about why that could be and I have a postulation.

When you learn to play music you learn how one item by itself can make music. Closely after that you learn how adding additional instruments adds a whole new aspect to the music. Then, when you add more instruments, of different types you get yet another aspect. One after another the symphony builds the whole becoming greater than the parts.

I think that it is this appreciation for the connectedness of seemingly unconnected items that makes developers with a music background able to make better code. Of course just as not everyone who has ever picked up a violin is a stellar developer the understanding of symphony is not limited to those who have played an instrument. The interrelation of things is something that anyone can learn and observe.