Monday, September 17, 2012

John Cleese on Creativity


When I talk about my job and software development in general I find there's a common misperception, even among fellow engineers & architects. People think being a software engineer, designing and writing good software is a methodical, clinical endeavor practiced by mathematicians working in perhaps tense environment with little humor.

In fact software development is mostly about creativity. The best engineers & architects are extremely creative people. The most successful software teams are teams that understand how to harness the creativity of the group.

Success is only mostly about creativity because once you have arrived at that elegant solution/design you must implement it. This means transitioning from that pondering state of mind to a purposeful, focused somewhat closed state required to turn that vision into functioning software.

John Cleese is fantastic in this absolutely brilliant talk on creativity. The video is very entertaining and provides great insight and tips on how to be creative and improve the creativity of organizations. Everyone in R&D should see it: