Programmers as artists

We often have this debate with non-programmers, trying to explain to them that we really are artists. For us it started with a comment in a team meeting from me about refining code being like sculpting, as Michelangelo put it;

"The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone"

Our Director of Technology then suggested that actually we are like poets, trying to find the most succinct way to express something.

Therefore, we are always glad when we find someone else who agrees with our concept of the programmer as artist, such as the following.

Hackers and Painters