Creativity and IT

I recently recieved an enquiry from someone who wished to get into IT,  programming to be more specific, and wanting to know what they can do to prepare themselves.  It's always great to meet people that are pro-active.  Read on to see my response.  Although some areas are specific to programming, in general the advice is good advice for everyone.

If you want to be successful in a particular area you really need to find the core of it.  You need to find the underlying principle.  For programming, I believe this to be problem solving.  Everything you do is effectively solving a problem for someone.  (There are many other professions where you could probably come to the same conclusion. Are you one of them?) 

If you want to become a better programmer then the place to start is to become a better problem solver.

Achieving this is a mixture of 3 key elements.

• Creative thinking
• Logical thinking
• Experience

Each of these we can work on.

Creative thinking

I won't go into too much detail on this one.  There are many ways to improve your creative thinking.  This website is a good one.  Play our games and challenges regularly and you'll be surprised by the difference.  And remember to have fun.

Logical thinking

Creative thinking will help you find the path.  Logical thinking will help you travel down it.  Logic games are an effective and fun way to boost your logical thinking.  Here are a few that work well:

• Mastermind
• Set
• Sudoku
• Petals around the rose

There are many other good logic games but these should get you started.

Experience

Learning programming is like learning to ride a bike.  You can only really learn it by doing it.  So dive in and start programming.  Write programs to help you do things you're interested in.  That way you'll be motivated.  Pick problems that will challenge you.  If you're not pushing yourself then how do you expect to grow? 

It really doesn't matter which language you choose as long as you're writing code.

If you want to become a great programmer then there are many areas you need to tackle but an important one is getting the foundation right.  Develop your problem solving ability and you will go far.

Got a question or topic you'd like me to discuss?  Get in contact and I'll be sure to consider it.

You're on your way to becoming a Highly Creative Person.