Playing a piano is easy

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2019-09-14 02:56
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Playing the piano is easy.
The keys are in order and easy to reach.
All you do is memorise which keys make what notes, then play them in the order written on the sheet.
- Randall Munroe in his new book How To.

When I tweeted this, and followed up with

    That's a complete set of operational instructions for the piano.
    From that we can assess the complexity of the task as quite low. Manual labour.

...it caused a bunch of folks to get quite agitated. So I said

    I think you're all missing the point. Nobody is seriously suggesting this is all there is to a piano. Please.
    But see the work allegory in this.

Then, on reflection, I had to apologise:

    My apologies to everyone. I really did understate the complexity of using a piano. I forgot the pedals.

[Updated:]
The joke continues...

    Apparently playing the piano slowly and quietly is considered just as good. Playing it loud and fast with as many notes as possible must logically be harder.

@cm_stead tweeted

    Writing software is easy. The symbols are all on the keyboard, all you have to do is put them in order.

and I replied:

    Programming is a bit harder than that. You have to learn the right words and symbols and what order they go in. It can take a whole week to master that.
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