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Voting for the lesser of two evils
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Re: A Word from George Orwell
Sep 06, 2002, 12:04
I usually avoid putting my head above 4Ws parapet but I just can't help myself here. I've worked in IT for 18 years (man and boy, hey, hardest job in the world and all those other facile fast show type statements ;)) and disagree that programming is creative.

As the industry has developed the creative input alllowed by programmers has been gradually eroded. This is why I've switched mainly to design, I'm a lucky guy, I work in a company where research is valued over development. I'm currently working on a new OODBMS engine as it goes. But I digress, back to the point.

The nature of the work, particularly when dealing with what we used to call mission critical apps basically can't allow too much in the way of creativity. Creativity is risky, dangerous and downright time consuming.

The majority of a programmers work these days can be likened to building something with a method akin to Lego. Rapid application development tools are used like paint by numbers sets. The creativity inherent is trying to find the most efficient way of stapling these 'ready mades' together, or trying to make the bastard tools allow you to do something you want. I would argue that this is not actually creativity, it's an intellectual process. It is 'hacking'. Creativity is playing music, picking up a camera, making a sculpture. Creativity is not hacking.

Back in the days b4 RAD, formalised methods and other bloatware the proggie had a lot of input that could be described as creative. Those days are long gone (except in the games industry and research labs), 'cos of the costs, time to market requirements of software, quality assurance requirements and a whole heap of other sensible management requirements.

Technique is not meaning, methods are not art. Systems can generate art, building the system is not art. The end result if it's a bog standard OLTP, Warehouse or OLAP system infers that any creativity that built it is inherently futile and essentially uncreative. Now, let the 'old skool' vs 'new skool' arguments begin.
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