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Originally Posted by Taylor514ce
That describes most of the best programmers I've met, pshrynk. You can push and prod and cajole and threaten deadlines, and they'll shrug, browse, and play first-person shooters all day. Then they'll code for 48 hours straight.
Or, they'll threaten mutiny when you force them to work on NEW stuff rather than rewrite something that's just fine because to them, it isn't elegant enough.
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Exactly. You can sometimes stare at a screen forever and not get anywhere (the equivalent of writers block, I guess). But when your "muse" strikes you can code for hours and hours on end and write an enormous volume, more than you could normally ever achieve. It's very similar to composing. I think a lot of people who don't code tend to think it's just plugging things into formulas or following well established steps to put things together. It's not really like that. Producing an application from scratch involves the same creative processes as more traditional "artistic" professions. Your tools are different, but the mental process is very similar.
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Also, every great programmer I've known or trained has also been a musician, or a bonsai tree hobbyist or a pointillist or designed their own house...
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Yep. The reason I mentioned brewing in my other post, is that there's a surprisingly large number of brewers who are also programmers/musicians. I think there's a certain combination of science/art in all of those endeavors (author, musician, artist, programmer, etc) that naturally draws people with that same "brain type".