On Creating…for Softwarists

We spend much of our time consuming content. Reading, watching, listening, gaming and playing. This entertains us. It occasionally educates us. It can drive our imagination. It can be social. And it can distract us from difficult times in life.

But there is something more special than consuming. Creating.

Creating not Consuming

Writing words allows you to develop your thoughts and hone your style. It forces you to be critical of your developing thoughts — you can be certain that feedback from friends and partner will follow. Part of this is scary at first because most of us aren’t instantly comfortable with opening ourselves up to the listening world (hint: thankfully when you begin your audience is so small you are in relative private). It is easier than ever to get your writing published, whether as an blog post, article or as a book.

“Creativity takes courage”

Henry Matisse

And it is not just writing. Creating music. Playing music. Sketching. Designing. Recording a video. Making a meal. Designing a card. Knitting. Building things. And writing software.

Developing software is a creative activity. It is a building activity for users to consume whether you are designing, developing, testing or deploying the software. This is commonly taken for granted; it is unusual to hear software described as one of the “creative industries”. Designers are creatives yes but not typically software engineers. Well, software engineers are creatives and need to be creative to do their job.

But perhaps a lot of software engineers are repressed creatives. Perhaps there is a missing acceptance and promotion of creativity among softwarists. It is apparent that one of the best ways to critique is to create. So I appeal to all software engineers out there to be more creative even if it is to increase your critiquing. Reveal your creativity. Mix it up with other creative skills: develop your sketching skills; write your thoughts for the world to read and learn. Or whatever interests you. Get in front of the camera and talk about the great software you are making.

Creative Writing

I have read many interesting and educational thoughts on medium over the last few months. And this has prompted me to write here. Across @KainosSoftware we have plenty of smart and creative people. So I’ve been on the hunt for recent creative writing from the softwarists from across Kainos. This is what I found.

Steven Limmer has dived in recently with a huge splash. First by opening himself up to the world by documenting his back story and imposter feelings. Then by waking us up to the reality that most of us want negative feedback yet often avoid giving it. Inspiring stuff Slimmer. Top Prize.

Meanwhile Will “I’m not looking for a job” Hamill has been advising recruiters using LinkedIn how to line him up with the perfect job offer.

Rama Varma takes us through creation of a new digital service through to working prototype in a series of posts covering identifying the vision, mapping the service, engaging with the users and finally finding the right solution.

Alison Coote gives guidance for another type of writing — user stories.

Irek Pastusiak gives a Protractor tutorial for creating UI tests for AngularJS applications.

The performance of agile teams is examined by Phil Thompson with guidance for how to improve it — after explaining why Digital is not about having a website.

Exploring future technology, Lizzy Atkinson lifts the lid on the Kainos Code for Cardboard VR hackathon from December.

Joe McKavanagh wrote and spoke at Digital Government 2015 about building platforms and designing for reusability not reuse.

Some bloke called Peter keeps writing about the new MOT service in DVSA, about building infrastructure in an agile way and then about how automation and testing was essential to this.

And finally lazzurs shares the excitement from this year’s UKGovCamp in London where there were lots of friendly discussion about all things agile in government.

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Sylvia Plath

Most of this content is public. Public is good because it is available to a wider audience and so can have a bigger impact. This helps if you are writing for others and not yourself — it can have an impact. Public writing also forces you to be more careful. So put aside your self-doubt and write.

Call to Creativity

I know many more are writing but haven’t pressed the green publish button yet. Do it. Ask a friendly face to review it before you publish if you’re uncertain. Do it.

I’m sure there’s more great @KainosSoftware content out there but this is a call out for all softwarists to increase your creative output. It is complementary to the creative process of software development. Writing is of course just one choice. Shooting video is continuing to grow significantly and I know there are vlogs in the works. Me, I’m hoping hand drawings will make a comeback.