Software is beautiful

I had a fantastic time at ClojuTRE and Tampere Goes Agile over the weekend. What’s more, as of late I have been hugely inspired by people and the cool things they do. As a result, when the hungover me decided to update the description on his LinkedIn profile page, things started happening, I got all poetic, and ended up with a mini-essay on the beauty of software craftsmanship. It’s now in GitHub, but let me just quote the whole thing in here:

Software has always been to me a source of inspiration and a thing of beauty. It fascinates me how there is always more to learn.

Creating great software is hugely rewarding in itself, but even more important is the journey of getting there. The journey is where you learn new things, discover new approaches and ways of looking at the world, and surround yourself with people that constantly make you want to exceed yourself, try something you’ve never tried before, and enjoy yourself just being around them.

Software craftsmen and -women (designers as well as developers) are a huge source of inspiration to me. I believe in making good go around – as everything we create is built on the work of those before us, the only way of making the world a better place is to share what we know, and help and inspire others to reach new heights by sharing what we’ve done. It’s really quite that simple.

I for one will do my best to inspire people now and in the future. Giving away as much as I can is none the less for me, but quite the opposite. It will require persistence and the daring to put your person in and occasionally step outside of your comfort zone, but I really can’t think of a better thing than to have as thorough an impact on the way people look at the world as they have had on mine.

I consider it a kind of a personal manifesto and a promise to myself not to forget why the world needs me. It serves as self-validation as well as the urge to make people realize how awesome the stuff we do is. Because it is.