“You ask why we would bother with this hold equipment when we could feed a computer design into a software-operated machine to do most of the manufacturing for us instead. But where’s the fun in that? We love getting our hands dirty making things and fiddling with little parts to get them to work together. You build a closer relationship with what you’re making when you work by hand. You can hear when the cutting speed of a lathe or drill is perfect, and you can feel from the resistance wether the pressure of your tool is correct. We like this sense of connection to the objects, and to the generations of artisans who came before us.”
“Hands of Time – A Watchmaker’s History” – Rebecca Struthers
Wether you’re a watchmaker, a chair craftsman, construction worker … or even software engineer – this connection to craft, and craftsmanship is timeless, and I believe, human. Even the artisans among us revere the other artisans around us, and we all experience that sense of awe when we newly perceive an artifact of “art.” Being artisan is a universal human trait. I think at its most basic core this is because storytelling is our unique ability amongst the animal kingdom, and at the very least, each of us has the capability for story telling. Even if we as individual may question our skill as story teller, it is in us. We can all at the very least gaze into the clear night sky and announce in awe : “Look — Stars!” A story is born.
We software engineers are also storytellers. We often forget this trait of our artisan selves as we are busy calculating how to move concept A from location S to location D. What we “do” (writing code, designing computery things) is to the end of doing work for humans, or giving other humans space to tell their story (even if it’s just the millionth “name, address phone” online form.. ugh!)
Software artisans speak of writing code that “tells a story.” This doesn’t mean writing code that spells out the text of “Hansel and Gretel.” We mean that the code we’re writing, the routines that accomplish that work for humans, need to be readable, need to tell the story of how that concept A made its journey from locatin S to location D. We need to tell the story even of what is “concept A” and what or where are it’s relative imaginary locations S and D. All this becomes tangible to humans in very abstract ways. A traverse from S to D … and now you have $100 added to your bank account. Some other A traverses from its S to D and now you have a brand new account on Instagram. We make these concepts reality and in the process have to tell stories.. both to our software-developer selves, and also to the other humans who are the “consumers” of this software. When we have the opportunity to be telling dual stories – one to ourselves, one that others will see and use – it is in this moment that we can pause and consider the ancestors who come before us, the stories they have told, or left a mystery. We have a connection to them, as they left stories and tools behind for us to use. In almost all modern software, we use “open source libraries” – collections of software written by other engineers, offered up to the public to re-use – to be integrated into their own story. Many of these software libraries have 10,000s or 100,000s of hours of developer time spent on their creation, often by dozens of other developers.
Take a moment today to appreciate the art you are creating, in whatever way you are telling a story. Even if it’s “Look, the Sun!” Someone will notice. Someone will experience your story.
Embrace your Artisan.
