Gabriel wants to make programmers realise that there are benefits to the practices of the artistic/creative/literature community. He wants us to realise that programming is a creative endeavour like any other and that creative techniques and values transcend any gaps between TheTwoCultures?. He chooses to focus on the commonalities between writer's workshops and pattern writing workshops. And that's the point at which he lost me. There are few people who have been to both kinds of workshops and I'm not one of them so I felt that the comparisons he was trying to evoke were too far-fetched. Which is a pity.
The first section (chapters 3,4 and 5) is truly excellent. Perhaps even life-changing. In it he talks about how great works of art are created through the artist's willingness to create something, anything every day so that creation becomes habitual. That way when inspiration strikes the habit of creation is strong and you are ready to realise that which inspired you. (A PDF is available on Gabriel's website that contains much the same material as chapter 3: http://www.dreamsongs.com/NewFiles/Triggers%26Practice.pdf )
The first section is strongly evocative and has the kind of emotional resonance I'd previously only seen in GeorgeLeonard's book Mastery. This is because he avoids details and talks chiefly about the notions of creativity, talent, practice, risky making (trying to make artefacts when the possibility of failure is tangible) and their interactions. Consequently I raced through these early sections feeling enlightened.
Then we get 13 turgid chapters about the minutiae of (pattern) writer's workshops. I carried this book around for the best part of a year trying to get through those chapters. There's good material in those chapters but I had the feeling that I wasn't in the target audience. He seemed to be trying to speak to two different audiences. One consisting of writers/artists and one consisting of technical people. The artists/writers already have plenty of books targetting them specifically so I don't see what benefit they might derive from this. And as for the technical community I strongly doubt that the same approach to workshops can be transferred across without changing it to be in accord with our values. Pretending that pattern writers are a large enough community to merit this sort of book seems disingenuous and alienated me.
Eventually one gets to the coda at the end. Then the relevance of the writing picks up again. Gabriel returns to his strongest themes: that the people we see as masters are merely "moving along their own arcs" of mastery just like us, that by consciously making things on a daily basis we both improve our skills and increase the number of artefacts that are on the right hand side of our individual bell curves with regard to quality.
I like this book. But it's too long and confused about the nature of it's audience. I bought it at London's PC Bookshop and if Gabriel were to produce a tighter revision aimed at the sort of people who visit that shop we'd all be happier. Or at least making more things for the sheer joy of creation.--AdewaleOshineye
Interestingly, my assessment is almost diametrally opposite... More later. -- lb
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