The Art Of Mind’s Blog

by Robert Werner

I’ve been involved in creating software for thirty years, twenty of those professionally. It never fails to occur that I’ll be at a party, someone will learn what I do for a living, and something similar to the following will be said: “Oh I could never be a software engineer. I’m too creative a person to do something like that.” I used to get angry hearing this but now I’m just amused at the complete ignorance of such a statement.

In every profession there are those who do the basics to earn the money they need. But there are also those who love what they do. For them, work no longer seems like “work”, but more like play. These are the artists, the creative souls that inhabit every facet of society on earth. They are the ones you should almost always seek out if you’re looking for something brilliant rather than something just satisfactory.

There clearly is great creativity involved in writing a book. While there are generally a limited number of ways to construct a sentence and while punctuation and grammar rules must be followed, the final work of a Hemingway or a Shakespeare is clearly different than that of the average college student. That’s not random chance. It’s creativity at work.

Software development is no different. Specific rules of syntax have to be followed. But beyond that there are virtually an infinite number of ways to construct a software program. A senior developer, much like a senior artisan, will know specific methods to build a module in less time than an inexperienced junior developer. And once completed, the senior developer’s code should have less bugs and run more efficiently as well. But beyond the learned skills, there is another important element as well. Those software developers who really love their work will get themselves into a creative zone, with their minds completely focused on the task at hand. When this happens, ingenuity reigns supreme and new innovative code starts evolving. It’s actually quite a magical, beautiful thing to behold!

In 1996/97, when the Internet was still in its infancy, two Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, believed that there was a better approach to providing Search results than what had been done previously. Many dismissed their work as irrelevant theoretical academia. But some saw the creative brilliance in the minds of these young men and invested in them. Together, they formed Google, which is now one of the wealthiest companies in the world. Did this happen randomly? Absolutely not. Creativity, intelligence, and hard work are key ingredients for success in every facet of our lives. Software development is no exception.

Robert Werner, P.Eng. is a technology entrepreneur based out of Vancouver, B.C. His major professional focus these days is with a mobile software application called Pocket Pollster. But he’s still heavily involved with the not-for-profit BC Digital Divide organization that he founded two years ago. He can be reached at: robertw@pocketpollster.com