Strive for perfection, and allow yourself to suck along the way…
Searching for the essence of craftsmanship
Below you find an article based on the conversation I had with Rohan Nicholls on the subject of craftsmanship and how he fulfils his professional life. You can listen the podcast on Soundcloud or subscribe at iTunes.
It is incredibly dangerous to shoot for perfection without realising that you’re going to suck on the way. — Rohan Nicholls
Intro
In the Forest Walk podcast we explore the essence of craftsmanship with the professionals while taking a walk through the scenic forest. Last episode we had professional baker and barbecue grill master Silvester Kuiper who left us with several wise words (you can read more on that here). This episode we have someone special for you, I had the opportunity to have a word with Rohan Nicholls, a Canadian programmer who resides in the Netherlands. We ended up talking about over coming fear and failure among other things, including a bit of his background.
Rohan Nichols was born and raised in Canada and only immigrated to the Netherlands 17 years ago which you can hear when he speaks. Although he holds a University degree in Philosophy, his number 1 passion is programming. After his University days, Rohan ended up waiting tables and doing some carpentry work before deciding to go into programming full time. In his words:
"So, we started looking at what might be interesting and one of the things that came up was programming. So, I took a course that would be in 97, I think, and I really enjoyed it; it was like a fish to water, really, and I still enjoy it."
The leap from Philosophy to programming may look like a huge one to some but not for Rohan. Philosophy had already taught him how to think systematically and his carpentry experience had taught him how to conceptualize, build and fix. Programming for Rohan presented a medium through which he could express his concepts while solving real world problems. He found his enthusiasm was tied to his love for woodwork-
"I was in an environment, my dad really liked woodworking because he had an amazing workshop down in the basement, so I grew up and my dad he built… for instance, when I was quite young, I think 8 or so, my dad found himself with a free summer and he ended up building my brother and I, you know Optimist Dinghies?… It’s quite a project."
Optimist Dinghies are little boats, in case you were wondering and he came in 4th in an international sailing competition with that boat. Rohan has done quite a bit of traveling too, right after he finished high school. His interest in Zen buddhist teachings, including D.T. Suzuki’s books on Buddhism, made him yearn to explore the places where the events he was reading about had taken place. This was what influenced him to pursue Philosophy at the university.
Programming was appealing because it presented a medium to express logical thought. The process of brainstorming and trying to implement an idea in achievable steps was something Rohan could do quite well. Part of his success was having his own system-
There are different ways to approach handling the complexity of programming, so one of my things is I like to make things as simple as possible, could be like that zen influence which took Buddhism and made it as simple as possible.
Yet making complex thought simple tends to be very difficult. Using Ernest Hemmingway to explain his theory Rohan shows that a true professional can hide years of experience and distill it into an incredible style, which is its own masterpiece. However, that kind of experience and depth of knowledge and skill comes with a price.
As we aim to get better at our craft, we have to learn even more than we do now. So instead of wasting years wondering how to design better programs or how do I get better or how to make nicer things, you can take some time off to learn about these things.
Failure is always going to be a barrier to excellence, even for the experienced
"It’s like any skill, you know, essentially you just have to do a lot of it in order…for it to be honed and your understanding to deepen and you may make crappy program and then go “oh yeah, no, that was a bad idea” and meet lots of dead end paths.."
Nonetheless, it is pertinent to keep struggling on. Having something that motivates you can be a key factor to whether you become successful or not. For most, the motivation and satisfaction comes in the knowledge that you have created a masterpiece, but this is different with everyone. Yours can come from anything, money, fame, loved ones and so on. Rohan gives us an example of ancient Japanese joinery which is done at a level of mastery which he tries to mimic in his work.
"That is what I strive for when I put together a program; how can we make it simple but also a pleasure to read? Is it a pleasure to actually have to work with it?"
To Rohan, these are questions that have to be answered before he begins any sort of programming. Striving for perfection may seem like the perfect motivation but it also comes with its own set of dangers and pitfalls, mostly that of failure itself.
"It is incredibly dangerous to shoot for perfection without realizing that you’re going to suck on the way."
Having that knowledge beforehand will help cushion any defeat. More important is also the lessons we learn from all our failed attempts, in programming terms, your dead codes helps you avoid them in the future. When looking back on the mistakes we have made, we are able to cringe because we now know better. If you go back and analyze mistakes you made 6 months ago, you will probably see a way to do them better. This shows that you are currently better than you were 6 months ago.
"Basically if you hate whatever you did in the recent past, then it generally means you’re going in the right direction. Allow yourself to suck, seriously it’s a huge thing."
Fear does more harm to creativity than anything else. The fear of producing something mediocre is a huge obstacle for a lot of people. We see books and articles that advise us to embrace our fears which is great advice, yet they neglect to add that it is a skill developed through time and reinforcement. Fear can also be a good thing as it always keeps us sharp and from falling into the trap of over confidence.
We had a very insightful discussion with Rohan but everything good must come to an end and we were left with some wise words and these were my favourites:
“no matter where you go, there you are”
And
“life is pain Princess, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something”
Outro
This article is based on the second episode of The Forest Walk podcast. You can listen our previous podcasts here. In this article we discussed the similarities between philosophy and programming. How your personal quests can result into some very interesting insights and that you find your balance between thinking and making. How you have to allow yourself to suck sometimes and get out of your comfort zone and overcome your fear because overcoming your fear allows you to take the steps that are needed to grow. So, I think some very interesting insights in the essence of craftsmanship and we add this to the insights we have from the previous podcast with Silvester Kuiper, the master baker.
In our next episode, I will have a conversation with my former colleague and good friend Michel Claassens. He is an executive with a large corporation and very passionate about building effective teams across the globe. His vision about how digital transformation can contribute to large companies improving and being ready to face the challenges they have in the global market space are very interesting. We will also be talking about his passion for other things in life such as surfing and martial arts.
So, looking forward to that. Please subscribe to my podcast series so you will be notified when it’s ready. I hope to see your comments and likes on this episode on Soundcloud.
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