Last night I read a blog post on LifeDev entitled “14 ways to learn from creative programmers”. I found there to be all kinds of good ideas on how to get more creative. In fact, I plan to take actions on some of these items right away. I want to go over some of the most interesting from this blog item’s list.Number 1 is to learn a new language. I think I would like to tackle C#. Although I tried to learn it last year, it might be time to get into it deeper and code a significant app in it. For my job I may need to move to the Java platform. We shall see.
Number 4 is to do it for fun. This one I already do to some extent. I write code in my own time. Also at work I take part in some side projects. These are coding exercises that I do just because I like doing them. In addition, I usually share my results for free on the web. This benefits me as well as my audience of my blog where I release my apps.
Number 6 is to find a passion. Over the years I have actually started to really enjoy software maintenance. This is an easy field to get work in. Many developers hate debugging code and researching bugs. I find myself fully engaged in the matter frequently. I would actually call it a passion. My top blog is one that focuses on software maintenance.
Finally number 7 is master your tools. I have worked with Visual Studio C++ 6.0 for over ten years. It is an understatement to say I have mastered this tool. However that tool has almost become obsolete. So we started using Visual Studio 2005 at work. And I can get by. But it takes a while to figure out how to do things with this version of the IDE. Time to get busy, write a bunch of apps with it, and master the darn thing.
I encourage you to check out the LifeDev post yourself. This post has reviewed the four items that most applied to me. But the other ten may be more applicable to you. Good luck.
