For my first actual post (not counting the one explaining why I’m posting anything at all), I figured I’d copy over an article I wrote on LinkedIn recently. I don’t know why I wrote an article on LinkedIn, but I suppose it’s the same reason I created this website, and maybe if I had created this website first, I’d have just posted it here in the first place.

Anyway, here are some thoughts about why I do what I do! Along with a beautiful artistic masterpiece I created myself to go along with them.


Color palette with programming languages
I probably spent longer creating this image than I did writing the post.

I don’t think of myself as someone who posts on LinkedIn about my experiences or shares my personal philosophy with the world. Who am I trying to influence, exactly? But I had some career-related thoughts recently that I wanted to share, so here they are.

I’ve never felt like a particularly creative person. I like clear rules, correct answers, and concrete finish lines. I’m much more of a scientist than an artist. My most creative outlet is music, but even then, I usually just practice and perform and have never been particularly inspired to compose. Working as a software engineer felt like a natural extension of that trend; after all, there are few things more rigid than the rules of a computer, right? Code either works or it doesn’t. I have opinions about code structure and style, of course, but I’ve generally thought of these as practical ways to make life easier for myself and others in the future.

Yesterday, though, I was thinking about a project my team is working on, and something about our approach didn’t feel quite right to me. I pondered and tinkered for a little while and eventually arrived at what felt to me like a more satisfying solution, and then, since it was Friday afternoon, I calmly turned off my computer and…ha, just kidding! That’s not how it went at all. I was excited! How could I wait until Monday to share this? This idea was in my head and it needed to get out. I needed to see it realized, to create something.

What struck me then was that this exact sentiment is often expressed by artists, musicians, and other creative folk: they get some flash of inspiration and can’t rest until they bring it out into reality. And it suddenly occurred to me that this happens to me all the time. A solution takes shape in my mind and I feel a strong desire to share it, to make it real, so I do my best to create a faithful reproduction. My palette holds code languages and libraries instead of paints or notes or choreography, but this is my art.

I won’t be changing my title from Lead Developer to Lead Code Artist, but maybe I’m a little more creative than I thought.