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The term "creative" is misleading though and its use should be discouraged. I worked at a consulting company that started doing agency work, hired designers, p
by bhntr3 14y ago
The term "creative" is misleading though and its use should be discouraged. I worked at a consulting company that started doing agency work, hired designers, promoted creative directors, built a creative department, added a creative area with a creative room and so on and so forth. This was always a point of contention for the developers. It's especially silly when this article ostensibly promotes crossover coders who do both design and development. Why does it have to be the "creative" department and not the "design" department? And in an intelligent organization that encourages multi-talented people and "interdisciplinary" work, why are departments and labels like that even necessary?
The pedigree of the term creative makes sense in the advertising world. At first creatives did visual and textual work and there were no engineers. Then developers became a part of advertising agencies and became a different department from "creative." Now the walls are being broken down and we're evangelizing "creative coders" Instead of perpetuating this silly distinction, let's do away with it and stop implying that just because someone isn't A "creative" that they aren't creative.
Bad naming is bad naming.
- sly010 14y agoRe: "Boo, unfair! I am creative too!" Fine, probably you are. But creative coders in the context of this article do slightly different tasks and their job requires a different mindset, than conventional software engineering. I know, I do both. I also find it funny when people start arguing on the meanings of the word "hacker". Obviously it has to mean what I do, (otherwise I would loose my cool). Except when a potential investor is comparing a "Software Architect" to "just a hacker", in which case I am obviously the first one. Stop being jealous, and define yourself with acts, instead of words. No one will argue with that.
- bhntr3 14y agoThe company I work at now doesn't make the distinction and has plenty of coders who "do both." I also do both. "Creative" is still a bad name. When your application evolves and the names of your services no longer match their business purposes, it's a good practice to update the naming to increase clarity. The same should be true of your departments and job descriptions. Keeping a name even though it doesn't make sense just because it's traditional and an industry standard is pretty lame. I doubt you'd find much support for that kind of thinking here.