This is Navarre’s latest sharing: Great engineers are also artists.
I still have a copy of Graham's "Hackers and Painters" on my desk.
It's very good.
It not only contains thoughts on programming, but also has a special chapter discussing what taste is.
Yes, this word has been very popular in the past two years.
Graham mentioned it many years ago.
Especially in the past few years with the acceleration of AI, there are more and more full-stack engineers in one-person companies, and they no longer focus on application layer technology as in the past.
The requirements for taste and artistry are getting higher and higher, and they will be more visible.
For example, some of the recently popular pictures based on nanobanana pro, Prompt, let me see a lot of possibilities.
This is AI, an example of the combination of people and art.
A brief translation of the original content: "I think art is created for the sake of art itself, and when created well, it can often create a sense of beauty or some strong emotion.
Many engineers are introverts.
By the way, I hate the word "incel" (involuntary celibate).
This is purely derogatory to introverts." It's like new age "nerdy," if you will.
If someone calls someone an "incel," I'd rather interview them.
So, we should get rid of these insulting words.
But introverts often prefer to express themselves through other means rather than just going out and interacting with people.
So what will they do?
They express themselves through their craft.
They make art.
At least half of the engineers at my current company are pretty good at making art on the side.
World-class art - everything from clever mathematical proofs to beautiful computer art to sculpting in clay, designing clothing, doorknobs, water bottles and more.
One of them even made an amazing music video and the work is really good.
And I found that many excellent engineers will try to use artificial intelligence art products, much more actively than those so-called artists.
I think many artists are afraid of artificial intelligence art products, worried that "it will replace me." And people who are not artists, who don't feel threatened, see it just as a tool and they try to use it to see what it can create.
Anything done for its own sake and done to the best of its ability is art.
Great engineers are also artists.
They can do anything.
It's just that they chose to be engineers and focus on creating things, because the essence of engineering is to transform your ideas and art into something that is truly effective, practical, and can embody knowledge in a replicable way and be used by people.
But that doesn't mean it can't be beautiful.