Development is an art form
This idea could be controversial, but yes—I think development is an art form. And after seeing this thread by Nick Lockwood on twitter, I finally decided to wrap my thoughts:
I'll probably regret this, but whatever:
— @nicklockwood@mastodon.social (@nicklockwood) August 26, 2021
I have zero time for the "simple code is better than clever code" trope.
Programming is an art form, and a way to express yourself. Code I write for myself is optimized to bring me satisfaction, not to be read and maintained by others.
During the lockdown of '20 and '21 I questioned a lot myself and had a kind of existential crisis. Who am I? What am I doing here? Part of these thoughts naturally come to me as human related to the work I do. And just several weeks ago I finally answered the main question—I'm actually kinda an artist, even developing software.
First computer our family had was in 1996 when I was something like 8 years old. But even having a computer at this point—I have always wanted to be an artist from my early age and until something like 14 (and probably until now, actually). I've went to art classes, liked it. Though due to some poor decisions, I abandoned it after 2 years. Still, I saw myself in the cartoon industry and remember playing with 3D software and how it impressed me. But in the end, the way things work inside also attracted me, so I moved towards Software Development. It seems like that's completely different stuff, but looking back now I see that my desire to be an artist actually led me this way.
Computer processes 0 and 1. That's it. Just voltage level. But what people have done on top of this is overwhelming. I have just called my mom through FaceTime in the Ural mountains from Munich and then seen some Pixar animated movie completely made by computers, downloaded through Wi-Fi to some smart TV. But how did people achieve this?
When you have an idea in mind, you think about it in some abstract way. Details are still not important, you don't even know how you can achieve the goal and even if you can do it or not. Then you take existing tools and start creating. And I think the process actually attracted me in computers. How do CPU and memory work? How can people take simple math and convert it into 3D models? What algorithm is used to get the overall colour of an image? How does lazy scrolling work?
I believe this path of creation through abstraction is common in all creative fields. You come up with ideas, implement it on existing tools and show it to the world. Then someone creates some abstraction on top of your ideas and implements new, even more interesting stuff. The Bauhaus ideas inspired Dieter Rams and his ideas inspired Jony Ive. Now you have an iPhone or MacBook in your hands reading this article. ARPANET was created on the ideas of J. C. R. Licklider and Bob Taylor and now you can send a text message to your friends through iMessage or Telegram. Someone goes further with abstraction and creates nice chat bots for Telegram and so on. It doesn't matter which field it is and I thus strongly believe development is an art form too.
You can say that this principle is OK for personal projects, but for bigger scalable solutions, developers should write readable and maintainable code, and there is no way for creativity. In the end, you signed a contract for doing your job. But I would say—the contract works both ways, and you were signed for knowledge and expertise in your field. Of course always balance between going fully creative and delivering a product. Creativity doesn't mean you don't do routine jobs—I think it's even otherwise—you're doing a lot of routines until you see an end result.
Conclusion
Software Development world is actually big, and there is always a way to express yourself. The biggest challenge is actually finding yourself a better fit where you can be appreciated. I'm struggling with this at the moment, but that's a part of a creative path. Some artists have been doing it all their life. But we can start with the first step—starting to appreciate other's work in your field from a creativity point of view. Don't measure and think about what others will think about it. Think about your personal impression, and if it gives some emotion—give feedback. At least it will give you new inspiration, but more important—it could have a great positive impact on creators.
In the end, development is an art form, and we all here creators.