DOES PROGRAMMING BOOST CREATIVITY?

СПОСОБСТВУЕТ ЛИ ПРОГРАММИРОВАНИЕ РАЗВИТИЮ КРЕАТИВНОГО МЫШЛЕНИЯ?

Стариченок Дарья Павловна

студент, Белорусский государственный университет информатики и радиоэлектроники, Беларусь, г. Минск

Шевалдышева Елена Зигфридовна

научный руководитель, доцент, Белорусский государственный университет информатики и радиоэлектроники, Беларусь, г. Минск

Creativity is known to be the ability to create something new by departing from traditional or accepted patterns of thinking. Why is creativity so important? Research on creativity has shown that there is a strong correlation between creativity and career effectiveness, well-being, and happiness.

So creative thinking is, primarily the process of generating ideas or the ability to generate ideas not only for media companies, design studios, and advertising agencies.

It is claimed to be of crucial importance for programmers as it is creative thinking that allows a programmer to find many solutions to a single problem.  Specifically, the creative problem-solving process has the ability to generate multiple ideas and solutions for each problem.

In fact, the benefits of developing creativity are directly related to the ability to solve problems. Creative problem solving and creativity in general were mentioned in a recent Forbes article that talks about the key skills employers will need after the pandemic, and describes creativity as an "always in-demand skill" that helps «make businesses stand out» [1].

The concept of creative thinking is closely connected with the notion of divergent thinking as creativity has a key impact on the development of this skill. Divergent thinking typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing, "non-linear" manner, such that many ideas are generated in an emergent cognitive fashion.

Why is divergent thinking important in the creative thinking process in general and for programmers in particular?

Divergent thinking is important in the creative thinking process because it generates a wide range of original ideas that form the basis of creative thinking.

It is known that we lose the ability to think divergently as we age. The decline in our ability to think «outside the box» or in a non-standard way tends to be related to the way we are taught, that is, to look only for one right solution to a problem, rather than to think of the multitude of possible answers and ways of thinking. Surprising though it is, divergent thinking can be seen as negative by some employers and organizations with strict rules and regulations.

Some people even claim that programming is counter-intuitive to being creative. Nevertheless, LinkedIn named creativity the most in-demand soft skill.

Companies critically need people who can bring innovation to any job, IT industry in the first place.

The majority of IT managers think that for a developer in the sphere of IT being creative is a must, a valuable quality of a specialist [2].

Programmer's tasks often contain many requirements that can change along the way. Creativity and flexibility of mind can save the project.

A creative programmer can find a simple solution that meets both old and new requirements with a minimum amount of intervention in the code.

Very many developers love their job precisely for the feeling of being immersed in the creative flow, when it is necessary to apply non-standard steps to solving a problem.

But you have to get your creativity right, too. If a programmer works on a large project where the work is strictly regulated, his or her craving for creativity can work in a negative way.

If the whole team works according to the given rules, and someone starts to create his own ideas and thus evades the task, then in fact it is counterproductive, which leads to violations of project timing, increasing its cost and customer dissatisfaction.

At such moments, you need to stop and assess the situation. In other words it is necessary to try to get to a trade-off between generating new ideas and sticking to an approved schedule.

A fresh look can see what a programmer with vast experience fails to see. You might want to use such well-known techniques as brainstorming, mental frames, 6 Hats method, cognitive research method, etc. They allow both to conveniently structure information and to think using creative and intellectual potential of a person.

In a company, the development of creativity must be supported by the position of the management. Work time should be allocated to studying new technologies and approaches.

This atmosphere should stimulate new ideas and non-standard solutions, employees need not be afraid of expressing new ideas thus creating an atmosphere of free dialogue.