&Creativity

Code

Geoffrey Grosenbach @topfunky http://peepcode.com

“The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed

from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air,

creating by exertion of the imagination.”

- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

out of nothing.Creating something

Sketchbooks

Prototypes

Critique

Practice

“If I get halfway through fixing something and I realize there’s

something else I need to fix first I’ll just revert and start over.

“People find that weird. But they don’t get that it’s not about

the code. It’s your understanding of the problem that you’re

working on.”

—Zed Shaw

“Restarting a coding project with a better understanding of the

problem shouldn’t be a rare event that happens accidentally. It

should be a regular part of your workflow.”

—Gary Bernhardt

rm -rf *

“In most projects, the first system built is barely usable. There is

no alternative but to start again, smarting but smarter.

Where a new system concept or new technology is used, one has

to build a system to throw away, for even the best planning is not

so omniscient as to get it right the first time.”

- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

“Don't write code until you know what you're doing.

Now, you may not be able to ‘know what you are doing’ just from

thinking, in which case you should start a test project and write a

bunch of ugly code to make sure your ideas are correct.”

—Wil Shipley

“Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in

happy endings and fairy godmothers.”

“This time it will surely run,” or “I just found the last bug.”

- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

Watch & critiquein person

Creative time is notwasted time.

“I can never get used to the fact that most of the time it looks like

you’re doing nothing.”

- Mad Men

Go Outside

Sketch

Laugh

Nap

Exercise

Nothing

New ideas are oftena combination of

unrelated ideas.

Prepare

Get Away

Aha!

Evaluate Implement

Sketchbooks

Prototypes

Critique

Practice

Q&A