Will's blog

Coding for me is a craft. I feel that I am a craftsman. My tools and design are intricate pieces in a harmony--a zenning out (to quote Tom Christiansen)--that touches my soul. The design, the creation, then I breathe life into my work. The sweet aromas of the debugging cycle where you become intimately aware of the inner workings. The subtle details.

This is programming as a craft. It is different from programming as a method of deriving income. For a lucky few these two can be entwined. But often the act of working as part of a development team for a client against a deadline creates an atmosphere where the creation of beauty must take a back seat for the purposes of teamwork and responsibility and producing a product that meets the customers' often haphazard and contrary-minded expectations.

But this is ok. This is as it was in the days of yore when the blacksmith would shoe your horses, then spend hours by his anvil doing intricate ironwork for gates and statues.

To keep yourself in the tao, don't be frustrated when you can't coax the beauty in every thing you do. Some things have beauty and some have functionality, and some are a total bs hack you did when you were drunk and it was late and the deadline was yesterday and you're just hoping that it doesn't cause your computer to crash before you can fully compile and check the new code in.