Stop the fake dichotomy

I blame Bill Gates. And Hollywood. But mostly I blame Jacopo Pontormo. 

There is a frequent online discussion in the UX community about whether designers should learn to code. 

I’m on the fence on the issue, but really my answer is – why the giant wall between the two? It’s not that big a deal. The two are not opposing universal forces or anything.

Why do we assume the “creative” side is barely rational, given to fits and furious fugues of inspired work, but incapable of balancing a check book?

On the other side, why do we assume a computer programmer is a dull drone, merely punching keys in the proper sequence to produce a program?

Some of my older friends know that I went to art school. I was at one time an up and coming glass artist who placed third in the world in the annual intake of glass artists into SUNY Alfred’s master’s program (the first two got a full scholarship plus living expenses, not that I’m bitter or anything). Occasionally, as a “creative person,” I’ll encounter a bias where someone feels they have to explain something technical because I’m, “one of those creative people.” 

Friends from later in my life are know me as a computer geek. Some even make the assumption that I’m a hardcore programmer, which up until a couple years ago, wasn’t even close to true. I’ve since taught myself to use the Laravel platform (I’ve been playing with PHP for years), but I don’t think of myself as a hardcore dev. These friends will not invite me to go to an art museum because they assume I won’t be interested, or they’ll chide me for reading from a Kindle rather than a dead tree book, and see my tech abilities as somehow removing any possible aesthetic sensibilities. 

Allow me to blame Jacopo Pontormo. 

Pontormo was a mannerist painter in Italy, a later contemporary of Michelangelo and Rafael. He was also, according to Visari, eccentric. He was described as “young, talented, and lonely,” a man who did things his own way. He wore black.  He painted his windows black. He picked fights with other artists. He was sullen. In short, he was the archetype of what we expect modern artists to be – asocial, slaves to emotion, and marching to distant drummers.

It’s bullshit. OK, maybe not bullshit, but certainly coincidental. Yes, Pontormo was a genius and created some amazing works, but as any logician will tell you, correlation is not causation. It is coincidence that Pontormo was the proto-goth artist, not a necessarily defining pre-condition for his creativity, and I blame him (and others) for setting the cultural norm that all artists are barely connected to reality, and can’t be held to account for their anti-social behavior.

In a similar vein, if you ask anyone to define a computer programmer, they’ll turn to Bill Gates, who isn’t the most social person, seems prickly, and perhaps overly precise. More to the point, if anyone was casting about, looking for someone to create a painting or write a novel, Bill Gates would be at the bottom of the list, as would any of his fellow computer-centric companions. You know what an algorithm is? Well obviously, you are boring, unadventurous, non-creative, as beige as the box you work on.

But the blame doesn’t cut one way. I have a feeling that if I could jump in a time machine, I’d see Pontormo playing up the creative stereotype, swanning about with his muse, in order to secure commissions. I suspect I would also see him, and others of his ilk, feigning ignorance when it came to finances, hoping someone would step in and figure his taxes for him or maybe even forgive a debt because he’s “touched by God.”  If being “odd” helps the bottom line, an artist will be odd. If it means getting hired, a computer programmer will put on horn-rimmed glasses, lose the mohawk, and wear a pocket protector for an interview.

OK, this is getting longer than it should – summary time – as far as the question, should designers learn to code, the answer is sure, why not? You aren’t asking them do anything impossible. If they have the time and the desire, go ahead. It will help them in the long run become better designers, but it won’t help as much as spending more time learning about design. 

Should developers learn to design? Sure, learn the basics if you don’t know them already. Everyone should have a bit of aesthetic knowledge. Will it make them better developers? Probably, in small ways, but it isn’t required, and I suspect a greater return from learning more about dev.

More importantly, don’t apply arbitrary stereotypes to people, and don’t let them be lazy by playing in to your expectations of that stereotype.