Little kiss

I’m sitting in an? open plan office? space, too much noise, too many people. I feel I’m frowning to block the noise out, to block the people out and to concentrate on the task at hand. Come to the office, they said. That's so productive, they said. I’m gulping down my third espresso in 30 minutes. There’s a proposal that I need to finish. The wording matters, the graphs matter. But my brain is a cluttered mess. Rubbing my face I try to imagine what I’m actually trying to say.?

The noise moves to the background, and the words flow. I’m writing a story. The proposal is a conversation and it’s happening in my mind. I notice I’m smiling to myself. The muse has given me, un petit bissou. Not sure why but I imagine my muse as being French. I’m no longer making a proposal but I’m playing with words. And after the words I have to make the flow charts. I had already made them. But now I want to make them pretty. No crossing lines. A good color scheme.?

The proposal was good enough to begin with. It was good but not nice. The pressure was on yet the muse called. It gives me joy to make things nice, when they are good. I’m a craftsman after all. The proposal has a clean look to it. The paragraphs are neat, the sentences smooth and the flow charts are crisp. It’s subtle and soft. The VanDenBeld - Bissou is subtle and soft too. As all dessert wines there’s a viscosity to it that is palatable. The freshness of young pears that balances sweetness and acidity. It’s gentle, it's neat. It’s a bisous.?

Every project I’ve done has had one or another type of pressure. The infernal delivery and productivity that makes you forget your muse. I believe that allowing yourself to make a sacrifice to the muse makes you a better person. And perhaps a better consultant. Make something pretty, for no other reason than that it sparks joy. It serves as a reminder why we started the game in the first place.?

After writing some code, make it pretty. Add comments and structure it visually. If you’ve embraced your craft then you should also embrace that it's a combination of skill and art. And for sure, you need to work hard on your skills. Educate yourself, keep yourself to your own standards. But don’t forget the art part. The art part is the creativity side of the craft. The soft side if you will. I remembered that educational books, and SAP training materials use icons to communicate with the reader. And I liked that. So hand-in-hand with my friend google we meandered around the internet to find the right exclamation point. I wanted to use that icon to indicate why a certain choice was made in the configuration. There are so many flavors of exclamation points, it is truly amazing. When I finally found one. It was yellow and made multidimensional with cartoon highlights. Not only did it have a transparent background. It also came with two siblings. A red cross and green tick.? The yellow exclamation mark stood out in black and white text. It was pretty and I’ve used this in many other documents since.?

Another time I made a great design that perished in the budget cuts. The disappointment that it would never be built was brief because I had thoroughly enjoyed making the design. The flowchart with the neat swimming lanes was especially gorgeous. So having that pretty design took the sting out of the disappointment.?

The balance of skill and art helps me be better at my craft, and be a kinder person. So when the muse comes along let yourself receive a little bisous.?

The craftsman should take the muse’s hand whenever she chooses to appear.

Till next time