Act Zero: On Software Writing
I named this newsletter as “Watch The Bear” as I could come up with nothing fancy at the moment. I recently finished “The Bear” marathon and totally adore this series.
I have made this new year resolution of creating a short-ish blogpost every week to write at least 100,000 words. I have no broad themes in mind; but it should be something novel. Eventually these blurbs should work like a note to my future self; a sounding board; a time capsule.
Writing software is an expression of the creative act.
Of late, I have been convinced of this notion that we can greatly enhance the quality of software that we produce if we stop mis categorizing writing code as an engineering activity. It’s time we acknowledge that creating awesome software is a performance art similar to playing bass guitar at a rock band.
It’s my hypothesis that we could do away with the “kludge” if we start treating coding as an expression of the Creative Act. We should put coding in the same bucket as the traditionally creative jobs like painting, dancing, singing and acting. After all, a software developer spends most of their time either typing into a keyboard like a madman or staring into the abyss (blinking cursor). Treating coders as general purpose engineers as opposed to writers or authors does great disservice to this profession and to those practicing it. Converting an inherently creative activity to an engineering task sucks the life force out of it. Most government websites will stop failing and we would have less JavaScript frameworks if we stop treating source code as an engineering artifact.
Here I propose some re-defining of the job roles in this field;
Software Development Engineers to Software Writers/Authors
Engineering Managers to Master/Craftsperson
UI/UX/Product Designers to Software Painters/Artists
Product Managers to Conductors (As in an orchestra)
Writing software is a spiritual experience.
Humans create art just for the sake of it. The screening of an art movie will not make our trains go faster. A 3000 year old museum piece does not make our streets cleaner. That Kendrick Lamar rap won’t make your grades go up. However these expressions can make you feel closer to God and every instance of human creation deserves its own theatre, screening and exhibition.