When I heard that Wouter was going to write a book for Manning, I was very excited! Wouter is researching the skills programmers need to be productive and creative, and his work so far had gained attention only in academic circles. How wonderful, I thought, that a larger audience will now be able to read about ways in which we can get more creative in our work!
Creativity, though, is a weird thing. We all agree programming is a creative endeavor, but what is creativity, and how can we get better at it? Isn’t being creative simply a matter of knowing a lot of things so you can apply the one that is most relevant? Wouter argues that yes, technical knowledge is a necessary condition, though not a sufficient one. He goes on to fill his book with a fantastic mix of engaging historical anecdotes, concrete practical exercises, and extensive references to papers, books, and essays for deeper reading both in and outside of programming.
I very much appreciate Wouter’s honest reflections on his own strategies. It is easy to simply encourage the reader to do a certain thing (“always take notes” or “work well as a team by communicating more”). Wouter openly addresses how hard it is to do these things, talks about his own failures at doing so, and always ends with concrete advice that feels both actionable and doable—a rare combination.