On Code & Creativity
Posted by Amanda on Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 | Classified as: Development | Sub-Classified as: code, creativity, geekery
People are generally surprised to hear that first part of my post-secondary education was focused on software. Sure, these days I’m more into the front-end UI than the back-end DB, but my heart is in language.
When folks think of software developers, they think of a person that fits into one of these categories:
- Dude
- Dilbert
- Reclusive nerd with little to no sense of social skills
- Left-brainer with little to no sense of creativity
- All of the above
Stereotypes exist for a reason.
“…in order to be able to interact effectively, we must have some idea of what people are likely to be like, which behaviors will be considered acceptable, and which not.”
Alright, I concede. Sometimes, I fall into the stereotype of the drooling nerd who does nothing but play video games for eight hours a day instead of getting my work done. It’s also fair to say that lots of software devs lack the social skills to be in sales or marketing. I can even admit that Dilbertisms exist for an equally important reason: all devs have had the dreaded PHB (Pointy Haired Boss) during their time in Cubicle Nation.
It’s the assumption – I’m a sometimes code monkey and that means that I can’t possibly be creative – that makes my nasty eye twitch come back.
Code Creates Things. Beautiful Things.
Look at your favourite piece of software. I’ve got mine running in the background while I write. Look at the way it’s laid out, the colours, how your eye moves across it, and even the mood it puts you in. UI experts put their souls into that. Designers lent their creative energies. But it was the developers that put all the pieces together.
It was the developers that flexed their fingers and made it all possible. The devs were the creators.
The best example of beautiful things created by code is: websites and web applications. Luscious layouts with exquisite typography that ooze creative juices. Don’t they make you want to crawl inside? Yeah, those are the product of a fellow code monkey taking the juicy Photoshop design and making it a reality for the web.
When I worked as an in-house software developer from 2006 to 2008, I was also the UI specialist. I took Excel spreadsheet mockups and made it scalable for both a handheld computer and a regular desktop in Photoshop and then implement the prototype in Visual Studio.
My job was to take the initial concepts and make them a reality; to create a product from scratch.
And yet, when I talked about my job to my friends, they would just chalk it up to another of my nerdy endeavours and ignore it. Software development didn’t affect them. Real software devs were science-fiction. After all, I didn’t work at Microsoft or IBM or Bioware. I worked for a 3PL warehousing company. I wasn’t creative; I was doing what I was told under my corporate leash.
Every project that I’ve worked on – both in-house and as an independent contractor/freelancer – has involved the combination of my right & left. My 1’s & 0’s. Working together. In tandem.
Code + Creativity = One Rockin’ Product
That’s what violetminded is all about: using both sides of the equation to balance the needs of project by exposing the creativity in code and diving into the logic of creative projects. When it comes to creating any kind of software solution – be it web-based or not — you can’t have one without the other, even if it looks as simple as words on a website or a text-based editor.
You need the creative chutzpah to generate the ideas and the technical skills to make the magic.
So the next time you hear someone knocking a software dev’s creative skills, tell ‘em this: you can’t have the code (or the solution) without the creativity.
