Inventing, coding, making mistakes (but learning from them), and having fun
I used to be a TA for a class called Inventor’s Studio, which really sparked my interest in becoming a developer. I would give lessons on creativity and innovation, and help students understand the process of ideation. Since the class was mainly composed of engineering students, I would provide them with activities that were intended to teach the importance of innovative thinking within the engineering field. In order to achieve this, they had to be able to see solutions to a problem from different perspectives. This often required a more chaotic approach, which was different from the “step-by-step” standard engineering approach.
One exercise that I think is important in letting go of that strict engineering state of mind is to have two people draw each other in 15 seconds, without looking at the paper.
Of course once they compare their drawing to the real person it’ll probably look nothing like the person (unless you’re some art genius). BUT THAT’S OK! Besides getting a good laugh out of your masterpiece, you’ll realize that you can go back to it later and redo it. This exercise really ties in with the Red, Green, Refactor method that programmers use, which is to make the code pass no matter what, then to go back to it later and retouch it. I think this technique is good because when you first make the tests pass, you might think that there’s no other way to do it. Once you revisit the problem, you’ll start to notice that there are better, even shorter ways to approach that same problem!

Side note: I recommend reading the book, “A Whack On The Side Of The Head” by Dr. Roger von Oech. The author helps you break through the “ten mental locks” that can restrain creativity by providing you with a bunch of brain exercises.

