Unleash your Programming Creativity

Software development is often seen as a very scientific discipline, generally viewed through the lens of a Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum. What is often overlooked is that many of a programmer's tasks, like debugging edge cases and approaching novel problems, require more creativity than pure logic.

Transcript

1. Unleash your Programming Creativity
3. Xavier F. Gouchet Staff Engineer… @xgouchet @datadoghq
4. But not just that Xavier F. Gouchet Staff Engineer…
5. About me… 5
6. “I’m not a creative person!”
7. “Programming is a creative art, where imagination and problem-solving skills come together.” — Margaret Hamilton
8. What is Creativity? And why it’s often misunderstood…
9. creativity /krieɪtɪvəti/ The production of ideas and objects that are novel or original, and worthwhile or appropriate, that is, useful, attractive, meaningful, or correct. — https://www.oxfordreference.com/
10. A lot of engineers used very creative solutions for very pragmatic problems Creativity is only for artistic goals 0x5F3759DF — Greg Walsh 0x30490610 — unknown
11. Creativity is a skill that can be trained, nourished and grown Creativity is an Innate Talent
12. “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” — Michaelangelo Creativity is easy
13. “Substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources […]” — Mark Twain Creativity equals Originality
14. The three kinds of Creativity* Combinatorial
15. Combinatorial Creativity
16. The three kinds of Creativity* Combinatorial Exploratory
17. Exploratory Creativity Eternal Ascend Challenge by @pwnisher
18. Exploratory Creativity Eternal Ascend Challenge by @pwnisher
19. The three kinds of Creativity* Combinatorial Exploratory Transformational
20. Transformational Creativity Illustration by Benedikt Bitterli
21. The three kinds of Creativity* Combinatorial Exploratory Transformational
22. How does it work? Understanding the Creative approach
23. Hypothesis Design (Procedure) Question Research Experiment The Scientific Method Illustration by Sangharsh Lohakare (@sangharsh_l)
24. Design (RFC / ADR) Implementation Problem Research Requirements The Engineering Approach Photography by Christina Morillo (@wocintechchat)
25. Preparation Illumination Evaluation Incubation Elaboration The Creative Process* Photography by Lucas K (@aznbokchoy)
26. Preparation Illumination Evaluation Brainstorm Eureka Design Incubation Elaboration The Creative Process* Photography by Lucas K (@aznbokchoy) Implementation Research
27. Brainstorm Eureka Design Design (RFC / ADR) Implementation Hypothesis Design (Procedure) Research Implementation The Creative Process* Photography by Lucas K (@aznbokchoy) Problem Research Requirements Question Research Experiment
28. Boosting your Creativity How to make the spark happen?
29. Photography by Kati Hoehl (@helenatheactress) Learn the rules, break the rules
30. Photography by Malcolm Lightbody (@mlightbody) Master the tools
31. Photography by Vlad Hilitanu (@vladhilitanu) Collaborate with others
32. Photography by Catherine Heath (@catherineheath) Be curious
33. Photography by Erik Witsoe (@ewitsoe) Keep your brain healthy
34. Photography by Priscilla Du Preez (@priscilladupreez) Daydream
35. Photography by Ashkan Forouzani (@ashkfor121) Take a break from your screens
36. Photography by Michael Dziedzic (@lazycreekimages) Be ready for failures
37. And in practice Some concrete examples
38. Hackathon Innovation Week Side Projects Photography by Alex Kotliarskyi (@frantic) Practice makes…
39. Constraints Requirements Opportunities Photography by Sandra Seitamaa (@seitamaaphotography) Define the problem boundaries
40. Brainstorming Scamper MacGyver Photography by Simone van der Koelen (@simonevdk) Generate ideas
41. Photography by Theo Crazzolara (@theocrazzolara) S · C · A · M · P · E · R S Substitute C Combine A Adapt M Modify P Put to other use E Eliminate R Rearrange
42. MacGyver Method Photography by Nipun Haldar (@focusbreathing) 1. Write a question 2. Incubation activity 3. Write the answer
43. Why should we care? Especially in 2024…
44. Artificial Intelligence vs Human Creativity 44 Photography by Erhan Astam (@vaultzero) Code Whisperer
45. TL;DR; What’s a statistically probable next word? 45 Photography by Patrick Tomasso (@impatrickt) Input Output
46. No Intent Generated by Leonardo AI
47. No sense of value Generated by Leonardo AI
48. No Semantics Generated by Leonardo AI
49. AI is a tool, driven by Human Creativity 49 Photography by Towfiqu Barbhuiya (@towfiqu999999)
50. Take aways
51. “Programming is Art built on top of Logic” — Erika Heidi Photography by Erika Heidi (@erikaheidi)
52. Take aways 🎶 🎵
53. In the chaos of Kotlin Lines, Suspend functions tangled like vines I need to come up with a plan, To publish an app that will shine I need to overcome so much : Folded devices I can’t touch, Deprecation of APIs, Leacy code I don’t recognize… 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0
54. 1… Gotta prepare my mind 2… Do research for a while 3… wait for a little tick, Until the cogs in my brain can all click 4… Brainstorm the ideas, put together all the pieces 5… That’s it! It’ll be the best… Just have to write another test… 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0
55. I read the book that Chet has done I booked tickets for Droidcon Of course I watched all of the talks And tried thinking outside the box I learned about git hooks and hoops Jetpack Compose internal loops Android studio’s latest tricks And Unix systems’ obscure tips 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0
56. 1… Gotta prepare my mind 2… Do research for a while 3… wait for a little tick, Until the cogs in my brain can all click 4… Brainstorm the ideas, put together all the pieces 5… That’s it! It’ll be the best… Just have to write another test… 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0
57. I learned to knit, to paint and bake, Although you shouldn’t try that cake I learned Python and Sign Language, Just to see if I could manage I turned my phone off for a day Which turned out to be quite okay, Wandered alone in the forest, Played cards with my daughter and lost… 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0
58. 1… Gotta prepare my mind 2… Do research for a while 3… wait for a little tick, Until the cogs in my brain can all click 4… Brainstorm the ideas, put together all the pieces 5… That’s it! It’ll be the best… Just have to write another test… 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0
59. Thanks! Any questions? @xgouchet - @datadoghq
60. References* ➔ Erika Heidi - The Art of Programming ➔ Corey Latislaw - The Creative Technologist ➔ Connie Biesalski - The Creative Process ➔ Unmistakable Creative - The 5 Stages of the Creative Process ➔ Marcus Du Sautoy - The Creativity Code - Three types of creativity ➔ Andreas Stöffelbauer - How LLMs work ➔ MindTools - Scamper * Non exhaustive list
61. Credits Presentation template by SlidesCarnival All credited photographs and illustration by their respective authors on Unsplash AI illustrations generated by Leonardo.ai Song by Xavier F. Gouchet 🄏 🄏 🄏 CC BY-NC 4.0