I’ve always been told that to boost my resume and improve my chances at being hired for a software development position I should expand my portfolio and work on extra projects outside of those required by my courses. That’s all fine and dandy, unless you don’t know what outside projects to work on! How does one gain inspiration and drive to work on something if you feel you lack creativity to come up with something?
I have always been someone who thrives under a structured setting – a job, school, volunteering, etc. I have a love-hate relationship with the parameters of those settings because they provide a sense of direction and purpose, while at the same time providing me with the opportunity to be creative within those same parameters. However, its usually working on projects I don’t have a particular interest in or something I would not choose to work on.
So that then begs the questions, what does interest me, and what would you like to work on? I love playing video games and exploring new types of music, so my initial thought has always been how can I get involved with either of those topics? Music I have no idea how to get started in writing some related program or what I would even want to do with it. Video games, however, is an expansive field that is only limited by your own imagination and creativity. A problem for someone facing creativity and inspiration. Another issue I have when deciding what to program is the question, “how is what I’m creating of value?” I want what I make to have value and be useful. Value is subjective, but I believe a universal value is improving the quality of our lives. The best way to do that is by solving problems we experience day to day, be they in video games, music, or in our every day life.
With all of this in mind, what is an amateur programmer to do? Reading from others and talking to friends, family, and colleagues, I think I have found at least one simple guide to finding inspiration.
- Set aside a day where you will keep notes of your day.
- Focus on writing down the problems you run into, in all aspects of your day. Work, school, family interactions, chores, everything! If you come across some sort of problem write it down!
- At the end of the day look at these problems and rank them on most important or annoying to least.
- Starting with your highest priority ask yourself if there is anyway that programming could alleviate that problem. If you can’t think of anything, move on to your next priority.
- If your problem can be helped with programming, do research! Are there pre-existing programs that are already out there that meet your needs?
- If there is some piece of technology out there, does it solve your problem in whole or just partially? Is there a way you could expand upon it to further to fully meet your needs? Perhaps this is something you can look into further and expand on! If a program is close to fitting your needs maybe you can use it as inspiration for your own program and expand/iterate on it to make it how you would like. Chances are someone else in the world feels the same and would appreciate a program tailored to how you believe it should function.
- If there is nothing then maybe you have just found a new project to work on! If you have this problem someone else in the world probably does too. Building a solution could prove quite valuable to not just yourself but others!
- If you get through your list and nothing seems to be giving inspiration don’t give up! Try again! Follow the same process and record your problems another day. Each day presents new challenges and interactions that could all be made easier somehow.
I am going to be following this process the next couple days and will report back to you my findings in my next blog post. It is my hope that this may be of some value to anyone facing the same struggles I am facing. Finding inspiration and creativity is hard, but I believe systematically it can be achieved.
Leave a Reply