When's the last time you tried something you didn't know how to do, just to stretch your brain a bit?

Marcel is a fashion designer (not a programmer), but his comments were very timely for our field. Think about software design when you read his next words.

"People think design is fluff, but it's a disciplined approach to something difficult. This is hard stuff that makes business better." and later "People who work in creative projects are excited to come to work. That's radical."

The really great projects are the ones we get excited about... recognizing the creative aspects of programming, including design, architecture, and implementation, is often neglected. How can we fix this?

If you're in management, recognize that an excited team works faster. Depressed teams work slowly. They come into work later. Leave earlier. Take longer coffee breaks and lunches. It's not intentional, it's just human nature. We chase what we enjoy.

Allow your teams some freedom to be creative in design, technology choices, even languages these days, and see what they give you back.