Deep down, we all harbor a fantasy: We do creative work, throw it in the mail — someone else sends us a contract and doesn’t bother us again. No one gets to tell us what do to; our art remains pure and untouched. – Perennial Seller

That is the dream of most developers, isn’t it? They get to write the elegant code they want, and they get money for it without any interference.1

They get to craft the code and refine it until it’s perfect.

They’re divorced from any deadline. They just get to produce code.

But that’s no the reality of good work.

Clients and Complacency

The flip side of this desire to create without any outside influence is complacency. You may tell yourself that you’ll just create and keep pushing yourself, but you won’t.

You’ll start to fall back into the ways you’ve always done things. You’ll hit a challenge and then see an easy way out and take it.

This is where client work is fantastic. They don’t care if one way is easier, they want the work to function they way they envisioned, and you need to make it happen.

You’ll spend an entire day getting a menu to work like the client wanted…and you’ll learn something new.

Constraints and outside influence are a refining fire for your work so don’t lament them.

Embrace them and use them as a way to produce better work all the time.

Have an awesome day!

Curtis

photo credit: ray811 cc


  1. Designers and writers and artists…all feel the same way somewhere in a deep recess of the heart.