The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Well, it is for me.

OK, so it’s blatant clickbait, however it came about after a conversation with John Dodds, so blame him.

So a while back I wrote about how the television show ‘Changing Rooms’ had potentially ruined creative people’s credibility because whatever the designers did was met with either snorts of derision or claims anyone could do what they did.

Could the average viewer do better than the professional designers?

Well I’m sure some could, but then those people wouldn’t be ‘average viewers’, they would have a special talent – potentially honed through education and loads of practice.

But despite that, the cultural and commercial value of anyone in the ‘creative industry’ was undermined and has arguably, never recovered.

The reason I say all this is because I feel the opposite is happening with the coder industry.

I’ve been fascinated by the rise of the coder in the past few years.

I don’t just mean in terms of awareness, but in terms of salary potential and importance … especially as my Mum was one of the original computer programmers for the calculator and she got none of the acclaim even very average coders get today.

Of course I get why …

The fact is in a highly competitive, consumerist World, companies and society seem to think every coder is capable of producing life changing magic and so to be successful, they need to get them whatever the cost.

But here’s the dirty little secret … because while some definitely have the skill and talent to create truly amazing things, the majority sit in their offices and bedrooms churning out stuff that adds to the noise of mediocrity rather than the elevation of what is possible.

Or said another way, why is someone who can use a spanner seen as a labourer while someone with some ability using a digital spanner is automatically seen as a craftsman?