MSDN Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 136)

Passion for the Craft SCOTT HANSELMAN A recent discussion I’m a father, a runner, a rower, an environmentalist, a human being, and, in the blogosphere stirred my inyes, a programmer. I’m a lifelong learner, and I love to learn everything, not terest more than usual. The term “5:01 Developer” was used disjust programming languages. I love technology, but there are so many other paragingly to refer to a kind of developer who basically turns off things in this world to love, and we have such a short amount of time. his brain at 5:01 P.M. and heads home. Many developers took umClearly, passion, craftsmanship, and stewardship should be part brage at this term and began to defend their positions by declaring how many hours per day they work. Others suggested terms of a larger work ethic for any software engineer (or tester, or manlike “uninspired developers,” and there were those who rejected ager). Sometimes folks blame their lack of passion on the number of years on the job, or the kind of work, or the quality of the tools. labels of any kind. Undoubtedly, when the tools get in the way, the To me, the label “5:01 Developer” has nothing to work suffers. I’m particularly excited about softdo with time on the job or hours logged. It refers Craftsmanship ware right now because it’s becoming easier and to the lack of passion. Labels or not, I believe that easier to get more done faster than before. to really excel in the field of software—or any field, and passion should I think what keeps things fresh for me when for that matter—requires a high degree of passion/ be part of a larger working as a developer are the choices. Not only inspiration/concern/commitment/enthusiasm/exwork ethic. is there always something new coming out, but citement. Your job might involve turning a crank there’s always better techniques, new thinkor designing a great new crank that will take the world by storm, but if you want to succeed—whether you’re com- ing, even new people exploring classic technologies. In the coming months, I’m going to dig into IronRuby and the flood of new pared to your peers or not—then passion can go a long way. I’m lousy with wood. Seriously, I’m not handy. If I attempted Dynamic Languages being enabled by the CLR. I’m going to look to use a power saw, I would very likely hurt myself. More impor- at Model-View-Controller (MVC) Web Frameworks running on tantly, I have no passion for woodworking. I enjoy looking at other ASP.NET and at code generation tools to create whole adminpeople’s work and can appreciate the effort to a point, but if I were istration sites auto-magically. I’m creating games for my Xbox® forced to make my living creating things with wood, I’d certainly and plug-ins for my Media Center. I’m even going to hack my old be punching out at 5:01. This lack of satisfaction creates the anti- Ceiva Digital Picture Frame if it kills me. Of course, all this work craftsman, who is just slapping two pieces of wood together and will happen after work. Does it make me a better developer or just hoping the chair won’t break. And a sense of craftsmanship is just obsessed? Probably a little of both. Can this kind of passion (or obsession) be taught? Should it be? as important as passion for a job. There’s a big difference in semantics between the word “job” and the word “craft.” Craftspeople be- I don’t know if I’m a craftsman or just a geek. I do know that I’m gin as apprentices, learning alongside a master, working their way still having fun, but I still take pride in my work, and I’m learning through as journeymen. When software is built by a craftsman—a something new every day. If you don’t have a passion for your craft, person with passion, talent, and a sense of stewardship—you can why are you doing it? I can’t imagine walking into my job every tell right away. A software steward takes personal responsibility for day and not finding something to like about it. The basic question another person’s affairs; in the case of software, this is the user’s ex- is do you care about your craft? Perhaps not about your job, but at least about your craft. James Curran feels this pain: perience from install to run. I posted my thoughts on this topic on my blog, and, as is common As a 5:01 Coder, I must protest—I am passionate about my CRAFT, just not about my DAY JOB. (My train ride home is spent on a laptop, working on blogs, the real gems were not in my own post but in the comon an open-source project.) ments of others. Max Pool nailed it immediately when he said: Ultimately it’s about finding your passion—and figuring out Some people, when asked what they do for a living, say, “I AM a software developer,” and proudly interlace their persona with their career. This how to keep it. { } simple reply tells a lot about the amount of passion that someone carries with them every day. Paul Brazelton shared his thoughts on balance: 136 msdnmagazine Scott Hanselman works for the Developer Division of Microsoft as the DevDiv Community Liaison and aims to spread good information about developing software in any way he can. He blogs at www.hanselman.com, podcasts at www.hanselminutes.com, and contributes to www.asp.net. http://www.asp.net

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of MSDN Magazine - January 2008

MSDN Magazine - January 2008 Contents Toolbox CLR Inside Out Data Points Advanced Basics Cutting Edge IIS 7.0 - Enhance Your Apps with the Integrated ASP.NET Pipeline World Ready - Around the World with ASP.NET AJAX Applications WCF Syndication - HTTP Programming with WCF and the .NET Framework 3.5 Wicked Code Foundations Extreme ASP.NET {End Bracket}

MSDN Magazine - January 2008

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