Like the hacker manifesto said in 1986, “They’re all alike.” Hackers are all the same. Coders are all the same. Developers are all the same.
I thought so for a very long time too, as a hacker (don’t ask, no questions no lies ;-) coder and developer.
But I was wrong. Developers are not all the same, they are not all alike. If we look close enough, we can see two distinct groups of developers.
These two groups are creators and coders.
And while there is a little bit of a coder in every creator, and a little bit of a creator in every coder, they are different.
A creator wants to create something. Wanting to create, they look for the right tool. A pen, a brush, clay, code. Coding is a tool for them to create. As a kid, I was a creator. I played video games in the 1970s/80s and wanted to create my own games, I had ideas that needed to manifest. The tool was coding, so I taught myself coding in a department store, following what other kids did. I wanted to create video games and I did. I’ve learned to love my tools. I love the inner logic, the intricacies of the code, the beauty of the code, the challenges of the code, the architecture, the clockwork, I love the tool. But I take if for what it is to me, a tool to create something. And I write poems and create books with other tools. I consider myself a creator. Others share the same urge, to create. Just like me they got into coding to create something. I’ve met many of them in my 1980s demo scene days. We wrote computer demos, to show off, to create something magnificent and astonishing and breathtaking. We worked hard on our tools - SEKA forever! - to make this happen. But we were creators.
Then came the coders. They want to write code. They love the code and don’t care about what they are creating. An eCommerce app, a game, an ERP system. A coder is about the code. They don’t see programming or source code as a tool to create something, but an end in itself. They are not interested in the creation, they are interested in the code.
Coders have very strong opinions about their tools. They have fights and discussions about what programming language is better. I - a creator - use what is at hand. I’ve used Perl, and Ruby, and C, Pascal and Modula2, Lisp, and machine code, and Java and Scala, Rust, JavaScript, Typescript and Go - and wrote a database in Bash. I’ve enjoyed the type system of Scala and the simplicity and beauty of Ruby. But they are tools. A creator does not define themselves by the tools they use, but the things they create. Coders define themselves by the tools they use, “I’m a functional coder” they might say, and abhor object oriented programming.
Hasn’t Paul Graham also written about creators? Paul Graham made the distinction of Maker and Manager: “There are two types of schedule, which I’ll call the manager’s schedule and the maker’s schedule.” Is this the same? Is the Maker a creator or a coder? A maker can be both, and I do think the term maker isn’t the best, it seems to suggest all developers are creators, they are not. In the wording of Paul Graham, I’d call them Maker and Producer (vs. Manager) instead of Creator and Coder.
This also solves the age old question of “Art or Craft”. Is programming art or a craft? Is it craftsmanship? For coders it is primarily craftsmanship, for creators it’s primarily art.
How does this relate to AI? Be patient young Padawan, we’ll get there.
Start with: Creators are often leaders, and coders are followers.
Creators want to create, and find the most astonishing things to help them as tools. They are on the lookout for new tools so they can create new things that weren’t possible before, without that new tool. When the tool has been established, and people pay for tools usage, there is a job market which draws in coders.
During my four decades in the industry I have seen and first an influx of creators followed by an influx of coders. In the 1980s, home computers put a computer on every desk, inside homes and in companies. Creators used those new tools to create something.
They coded VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3, they coded Uridium, The Sentinel, Elite, Apple Writer and CP/M. Creators were everywhere. They were drawn to computers to create. Later when there was a job market, coders came. Not every coder is in it for the job, but many are.
The same happened with mobile apps. Creators were drawn to mobile apps to create. When there was a job market, coders came. Same with the gaming marketplace of Steam which enabled everyone to distribute their game, Indy creators created games and coders followed.
Now Tabula Mag is about AI. What has that to do with AI? Right.
Who will survive the AI tornado?
Creators will. They don’t primarily care about the tool, they care about creating. Water or oil, they might prefer one, but they are in it for the creation of paintings. Otherwise they would not be an artist, but a painter painting walls with the best brushes. AI is just another tool to them. A better tool, to create more magnificent things.
Coders will not. They cling to the tool, they identify by the tool, and when the tool goes away, the coder will. They resist the adoption of AI. Whenever I talk to my CTO coaching clients, they tell me they have two types of developers. Those that resist AI, and those who eagerly adopt AI. A resistor might say “for complex software, much of the time will be spent on post hoc understanding of what code the AI has written.” They care more about the tool, the code, than the creation.
AI is democratizing creation. You no longer need to be a coder to create software. Just like the home computers of the 1980s put a new tool in the hands of millions of people, to become creators, just like me, to enable them to create who could not create before, AI puts creation into many more hands. You can be a creator with AI.
Though this time will be different for coders. The market for coders expanded every time there was a new tool for creators, like home computers or mobile apps, it created more jobs for coders. AI will not. It will take away all the code.
Creators will flourish, and coders will go away.
So now you know who will survive the AI tornado.