How Is Sketching A Drawing Like Coding?

Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain

If you've ever read the fantastic book Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards you know that Drawing is not the action of moving a pencil across paper in an attempt to represent the original thing. No.

Instead, Drawing is Seeing.

The best artists are the ones who really concentrate on the item they are drawing and transfer that discovery onto the paper.

Ability to Examine Something For Hours

The amazing ability of artists isn't exactly what we think it is -- the reproduction of the 3-dimensional item on a 2-dimensional media. Instead, it is the ability of the artist to concentrate their focus so heavily on the item for extended periods of time that understanding arises. A deep understanding of how to represent the 3D item in a 2D space.

Concentrating On The Thing: Being Present

When an artist truly moves into the creative mode she moves into a place where there is no past and no future, but instead there is just the present. The Artist slows everything down and all focus is only on the work at hand.

Software Development Is Very Similar

The best software and apps are the ones where the Software Developer has concentrated on the problem and the solution so thoroughly that using the app feels intuitive.

Nothing to Add, Nothing To Take Away

When the product (App) is created properly, then there is no longer anything to add nor anything to take away.

However, very little software gets created this way.

Using Your Own Product

Using your own product is a great way to continue forcing the correct parts to be added and the useless parts to be removed.

I've created a couple of projects that I wanted and I use them myself.

Core Competency Tracker

Each year, my company requires me to go through an annual review. My manager will send me an email and say, "Please send me a list of your accomplishments so I can write up your review."

Accomplishment Tracking

I would go thru the year of email and try to pull things out.

Core Competencies

I discovered a fantastic document that can align your business accomplishments with the tasks you worked on through the year. Read the document here : 31 Core Competencies Explained.

Turned Core Competencies Into An App

I wanted something more like a journal so I took all of those 31 Core Competencies and their associated details and turned them into my own app.

Try The App -- No Sign-up, No Email, All Free

You can try it out at my site: https://newlibre.com/coreco/

The source is FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) - get it at my github.

What I Really Wanted

Because I was using the app and I wanted others to try it, I had quite a few things I required.

1. Allow users to track their core competencies without ever creating a UserId or password. This is tricky & creates a GUID that is immediately assigned so you can track all your Core Competencies in your own journal.

2. Allow users to just start using the app. All data is saved for the user on a Firebase DB backend.

Try it out and let me know what you think.