Dear Reader,
I have a friend named Jeremy Kendall who is an outstanding photographer. One day I was taking a picture of an old clay pot I thought of Jeremy and something kinda fell into place for me.
I can look through the view finder and see the subject. I can compose a picture properly to showcase the subject. I can adjust the settings for the available light. I can frame it and I can take a picture.
Jeremy however, can look through the viewfinder and see beyond the clay pot, he can see the beauty of the shot that is waiting to be captured. Jeremy doesn’t take pictures, Jeremy makes art.
We both use a camera, we both push the shutter button, but only one of us makes art.
The next time I am tempted to dismiss someone’s creation as “simple” because it’s something I can do, I’ll think of Jeremy.
This includes the next time I look at a SaaS product and think “I’m not paying $75 a month for 250 lines of code and a cron job.” (Actually happened. Cost me 3 years of my weekends.)
“Code is Poetry” as Matt Mullenweg is fond of saying. Code is truly is art.
It doesn’t matter if it’s written in a language I approve of. It doesn’t matter if I like the platform it runs on. Art is art, even if I don’t recognize it.
I need to remember that code is art and that someone poured a lot of love into that code, even if I don’t immediately appreciate it.
Until next time
I <3 |<
=C=