Yay Iteration

04 December 2014 Unknown 0 Comments

image by zurb.com

This post is the last in my attempt to introduce my favorite areas. I've done this so when you see posts about these things, you'll understand how they relate to our exploration of the creative process.

Computer programming. This is the only of the three that isn't an "art" form. It's the only one considered engineering (but after posting about creative writing, I'm starting to think that it has engineering in it's blood).

So, since this is the engineering side of me, you probably have guessed how this relates to our study of the creative process and it's long term success.

Programming is like puzzle solving all day long. It's really quite fun. But even though I say it's like puzzle solving, it's very straight forward most of the time.

Sure there are multiple ways to make a solution in many instances, but there's generally a right way or at least a best way. It's fairly linear and not much artistic ability is needed to come up with a solution.

But the things it can teach us about innovation that apply to so many other fields are profound.

The most prominent is iteration. That's not a term too many people use, but it means to do something repeatedly. In the programming world that means you try something and then incrementally make it better each time you try it.

Iterating on a solution for even a small bug is very common. Everything we do is just try and repeat. Try and repeat. Try something out and make it better next time.

It's actually a good mantra for people who are afraid to take the first step to do big things in their lives. Just try it out. You can fix it the next time you try. It doesn't need to be perfect now. Just try it.

Iteration. It's powerful.

This post from Forrst about feedback and iteration talks about it really well (start reading about half way down where you see the same picture as above).

Who has heard of iteration before this post?