buznutt

Web development entails a lot of hard work.

There are hundreds of details in even the simplest web site, and several technologies need to converge to bring one to life. This is true with all software, and even more deeply true for web applications.

If a web site is a collection of documents coded in HTML, then a web application is a collection of data and graphics that has been taught to dance.

And this is only the beginning.

For old-style software development you need an idea, a programming language, and a platform. In other words, a green-screen, character-based mainframe system. That's pretty simple.

For web development, even for static HTML-based sites that are nothing more than pages of text with the occasional illustration, there are more levels.

First, there is the development environment, someone's desktop, where the site is built.

Then there is the site's host, with its own hardware, and its web server environment. Throw in a different operating system, a database or two, a scripting language or two, and you have a complex world.

Beyond that there is the whole internet, over which a developer has no control whatsoever. And millions of combinations of computer operating systems and browser configurations on individual desktops at the consuming end, scattered all over the world. The developer has no control over those either.

Even so, that is, in a way, the easy part. Programming is difficult but the really hard part is discovering creative solutions.

Creative services are a different breed.

Anyone can push a broom. It may be hard work (and I've done lots of it), but it isn't creative. Anyone of average intelligence can learn to be a passable accountant, mechanic, doctor, or construction worker. It takes the application of effort over time, and that's about it.

The process for getting work done in a non-creative field is to define the problem, make a plan, and carry out the plan. And then you are done. You can make this even simpler by identifying the problem and then looking up a proven solution. All you have to do is follow a recipe.

Creativity is not like this.

Creativity is not predictable.

Not everyone can be creative.

Creativity can't be taught or learned.

And there is no recipe to follow, ever. There can be guidelines, requirements, needs, hopes, but there is always that final leap, of inspiration. Otherwise there is no creativity.

And besides this, the result of creative work must always be evaluated subjectively. So creative work really is different. It can't be counted.

These two ways of working have radically different results. One produces expected and predictable results, and the other produces results that are unexpected and unpredictable.

Those who do not understand creativity do not believe it is valuable, precisely because they do not understand it. Check this out as a thought experiment.

Next time you try to do something you simply can't do, review your attitude. Chances are that you will come to the conclusion that the problem is in the task, or the tools, or the process, and not in you. Very seldom will you, unless you are a special person, decide that you are inept, even in the most secret recesses of your own mind.

If you need to get something done, and can't do it, you will grudgingly turn the work over to someone who can do it, and you will think of them as hired help, not as gifted artisans. Not as angels sent from the gods, just for you.

Because all you want is the quickest, cheapest fix you can get, and you have the wrong attitude, being seriously annoyed because you can't just do this yourself.

Those who do not understand creativity

• don't comprehend how results can appear from nowhere
• don't understand how much training and educated judgement are needed
• have no idea how much hard work goes into the process
• view it all as magic, as a kind of entertainment
• don't see a finished product as something of value

Recall that even Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors who ever lived, said "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!" Invention is creation, but the hard work is still needed, and the hard work is in addition to the creativity, not instead of it. So creative work is real, ordinary work, and is also a special thing that not everyone can do or even understand.

Check out Richard Feynman, one of the fathers of the atom bomb. He was one of history's greatest physicists. He engaged in fundamental work, and helped give birth to a whole new branch of science. He worked hard, but at the core of his work was creativity. Still, he wasn't good at everything. He was a profoundly creative physicist, and an inspiration to generations of students, but he wasn't a good painter, or much good at simple pencil sketches either, though he tried to be. It was something he simply didn't understand and couldn't learn.

There is a rule that says not everyone can become an artist but anyone can learn to draw. This was true of Feynman. He also liked to pound on a drum, but he never become a musician, only a man who pounded on a drum.

Creativity is both special and specific. Being a fantastic physicist doesn't mean you're a fantastic dancer, any more than being a terrific singer means that you're great at inventing industrial processes, or vice versa.

But all work is valuable, even the work you can't do yourself. Even the work you can't understand. And really, perhaps that is the most valuable work, even if it seems to appear as if by magic, because creativity is the essence of things.

Nothing new ever comes into being without creativity. Everything is designed. Everything. Pencils. Buildings. Toilet paper. Water bottles. Documents. Doorknobs. Businesses. Web sites. Creativity is the most valuable and precious thing we have as humans, and should be seen as such, and treated as such. It can't be done by the low bidder, ever.

Feynman's art

Copyright © 2008 - 2010 by Dave Sailer

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