I think the Deadmau5 vs Bailey comparison is a really clever way to frame what live coding is. He is being honest about something that a lot of performers pretend is not happening, and I think there is something refreshing about that. For me the whole point of live coding is that something could go wrong, and that tension is what makes it feel alive. A perfectly pre planned show with synced lights and video is impressive in its own way but it does not give me that feeling.

The Bailey section hit different because I actually feel like that philosophy is closer to how I think about using Hydra and TidalCycles. I do not always know what a pattern is going to sound like or what a modulation value is going to do to a visual until I try it, and I think that exploratory quality is what makes it feel like playing an instrument rather than just operating software. I have had some of my best moments in live coding sessions when the code did something I did not expect and I just leaned into it instead of fixing it.