A lot of people are surprised by the fact that I’m a software developer who writes fiction. I know all about the stereotypes of my profession, and I’ll be the first to admit that they aren’t without basis. What puzzles me, though, is how diametrically opposed people seem to think the two things are. “It must be nice to have a creative outlet like writing after using a computer all day.” I even get this from people that I work with in the software industry.
In my mind, the two things aren’t really that different – both are opportunities to build interesting things, to express my thoughts about the world. They’re just different languages for communicating. In one case I’m building a story in the reader’s mind one word at a time. In another I’m constructing a user experience for someone who runs my program or visits my website.
I guess the bottom line is that you can’t assume that because you don’t understand something, that it is devoid of art and creativity.
Word Delta: hand-editing at the moment, so no word counts.