Are Software Developers Creative?

Of course we are!

The good news is that software developers still have a lot of room to grow in terms of creativity. There’s that part of the brain that software developers aren’t usually trained to use. Because of the nature of software development itself, people are trained to be logical and analytic in the industry. System analysis and design, computer programming, software testing and other tasks mainly require a systematic and logical way of thinking.

There are two types of questions we usually face.

1. There’s a problem. How do we solve it?

2. Have you come up with any new ideas that will be useful?

The first type of question is what software developers face day to day. Design a computerized system for a company’s new division, upgrade a banking system, implement a video game, etc. etc. These are the types of things software developers are trained for.

The second type is more difficult since there’s no clear target at first. We have seen ideas developed that have a great impact in the industry like the internet, the world wide web, search engines, social networks and many others. So who had these ideas? People in the software development industry of course!

Almost everyone takes it for granted that such ideas and developments will always be produced by someone in the industry as time goes on. But the hitch is, most people don’t believe they have the ability to come up with those ideas. I disagree with that. What I believe in is that a lot of great ideas are present in the minds of many people, but they just don’t recognize it. They just need to be trained to be conscious of these ideas that they may have, and that’s usually the training that’s not normally provided in the industry.

Author’s Note: Some of these articles in Creative Thinking were written years ago in another blog.  I’m reposting them here as an intro for more posts in the creative thinking category.