Developing the creative mindset

Many developers focus on the problem solving aspect of their career. Is it wise?

Many developers become employees in the field because of their interest in the problem solving aspect of software development. In this article I discuss how the left brain thinking that attracts developers can cooperate with the right brain to maximise productivity, value and fulfilment in your career.

Think back to that time you made the decision to become a software developer. If you are like me, one of the reasons you became a software developer as opposed to a Movie producer or a photographer was the type of thinking that you needed. There is something about working with computers that was easier than working with people. Computers don't care about feelings. You can predict what input would produce what output. As a high school student I imagined that being a developer would be something like solving mathematics problems. I believed there would be one right answer. I believed as long as the program produced the correct output for every input, the job was done. No worrying about whether the task was completed correctly, and whether what was delivered would be what was expected. It was not l like writing an English essay where you never quite knew how you went until the marks came back. It was going to be, I believed a world of simple 1s and 0s, where black was black, white was white and every problem had a logical solution. If only it turned out like that.

What I learned when I started work was not only did I need to use both the left parts of my brain but that both parts of the brain were critical to success. Yes the left brain is essential for the kind of logical thinking that programming requires. But the right brain is essential for the kind of skills you need to be successful. The right brain is essential for creativity and intuition. Why do you need creativity? Because there is actually more than one way to solve a problem. Yes customers often know exactly what they want, but often that is not the case.