I totally love Austin Kleon’s books on creativity.
Love. Them.
If you haven’t read them, they’re a few bucks on Amazon, and a great pint-sized books on inspiration. I’m currently re-reading “Steal Like an Artist” - and every time I read his stuff I get inspiration for other spheres of my life, whether it’s music, business, faith, family, or, in today’s case, programming.
flickr photo shared by Austin Kleon under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-ND ) license
I was reading stuff today about how you are the sum of your influences, plus a bunch of your own stuff.
And I got to thinking about my own programming genetics. Who am I the sum of when it comes to programming practices, style and approach?
I know who I would like to be like.
Beyond the FOMO: Your programming genetics
Everyone today is on the hussle to convince you of the “right” platform/tools/frameworks/process for your next app, and feverishly trying to infect you with a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
“If you don’t embrace this new shiny thing, you suck and are doomed to fail.”
Now I love shiny things… We all do…
But what happens when you reject the whole FOMO thing, and just starting thinking about apprenticing off the people that have stood out to you as consistently great developers.
Everyone has their own list of people they think are awesome developers.
For me, Kent Beck is right up there…
flickr photo shared by Improve It under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) license
- Decades of contribution to programming
- Tons of practical battle-tested literature - written in humility
- Optimised around delivering business value, not about being a rock star
- Still changing the world
All those things are pretty high value for me. But you have your own list.
So find people that tick your boxes, and you’re on your way to discovering some serious inspiration…
“I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists.”
I wonder where your programming genetics come from? Who are the guys and girls that have shaped the way your develop code today?
For me, that’s not just name brand folk, but also awesome enterprise developers that I’ve worked with over the years (and continue to work with today). Some people consistently develop functional, stable, and flexible software with great UIs.
Year. After. Year.
Let’s go find and apprentice off them. Let’s steal their best practices. Let’s pattern off their code style, testing patterns, user story process. Take it and make it your own. No shiny required.
From “Steal Like an Artist”:
Marcel Duchamp said, “I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists.” This is actually a pretty good method for studying—if you try to devour the history of your discipline all at once, you’ll choke. Instead, chew on one thinker—writer, artist, activist, role model—you really love. Study everything there is to know about that thinker.
Forget the FOMO, let’s go find some awesome people (at work, on GitHub, YouTube, at your local JUG or wherever works for you) and level up from their practices.
Steal like an artist!