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There does seem to be a distinction between programming as art, and programming as plumbing. Most programming probably falls into the latter category. But even
by DougBTX 18y ago
There does seem to be a distinction between programming as art, and programming as plumbing. Most programming probably falls into the latter category. But even when plumbing, you don't check that the water flows through each joint as it is fitted by turning on the tap. I assume the author doesn't send his article to his editor every time he places a full stop.
Perhaps when you are forced to check yourself at every turn, when small mistakes cannot be ignored and instead become hard walls to progress, that's when creativity is stifled. When writing an article, small spelling mistakes can be corrected in the second draft, but the ideas are already on paper and can be exchanged with others.
It all comes back to flow, transcending the mundane to imagine the creative. And so to the question implied in the article: is there something inherent to programming which inhibits flow?
I see three possibilities. 1) The programmer becomes an expert, and so transcends the distraction of small mistakes simply by not making small mistakes. 2) The programmer chooses an environment which either tolerates, ignores or fixes small mistakes, whether through postponing compile time errors to run time, or by automated refactoring to always leave the code ready to compile. Or finally, 3) the programmer simply never gets into the flow, and as with the author, creativity is void.
- gruseom 18y agoa distinction between programming as art, and programming as plumbing [...] transcending the mundane to imagine the creative I think this is a common misunderstanding of what art is. Every art has its mechanical, detailed side that must be worked through. The end result may be a lofty and soaring creation but it doesn't follow that the artist lofted and soared their way to get there. On the contrary, what's striking in the lives of great artists is not how they transcended the tough slog but how they did more of it, far more than their peers. The mundane and the creative are closely related, and the idea of the creative without the mundane is an ungrounded fantasy. I remember reading something about the Beatles (by one of their early girlfriends or wives) that said when they went to parties, Lennon and McCartney would usually end up in a corner going over song ideas. There are countless such anecdotes. A woman walks up to Picasso in a restaurant and asks him to sketch whatever he likes on a napkin and charge her whatever he thinks it's worth. Picasso does so and says, "That will be twenty thousand dollars." "But it only took you thirty seconds to do that!" "Madam, it took me thirty years to do that."