Creative Space

Before there can be code, there should be design. Features and specifications, requirements, use cases, mockups, architectures and so forth. It’s incredibly difficult to meaningfully create those things when sat in front of a computer. There’s a tyranny of the machine that seems to interfere with big-picture thought; an invisible force-field relentlessly dragging your mind down to the specific.

This is a thoughtful and well expressed perspective on how the iPad can improve the quality of working conditions for programmers. But haven’t we already established a pattern of using spaces where our mind is clear, when we work on paper or in our notebooks?

I’m no longer one of the multitude of Bedouin Auslanders perched over their laptops in Berlin cafés. I’ve experimented with this a lot, and have learned that such “tyranny of the machine” is precisely what I am seeking to avoid by working in this way.

</p>One of my major habits is sketching and writing ideas in cafés and other relaxed, bustling settings – it’s essential for my creativity to be nowhere near a computer when thinking through high level ideas. After working on paper in a stimulating environment, it’s easier for me come back to the screen with a sense of clarity and purpose.</p>