Comment by siva7

Depends on whether you are working for someone or building for yourself.

If you work for someone, you are essentially plumbing, you will still find faults with their ideas and inform them. But you don't make the call to change that idea, nor do you have the burden of living with the finished product. It doesn't have your name attached to it. No one will call it, siva7's crm, you will move on to the next project.

Now, if you are building something for yourself, you are the creative writer. It's your call, it's your want, it'll have your name attached to it. You can move on, but in everyone's mind and your own, it's your creation.

Well it is quite literally writing, and fairly often starting with a blank page (file) and then doing a lot of editing.

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Talking of pages, I quite often write down on a physical notebook what I'm trying to accomplish. Because if I just dive straight into hacking code I sometimes get a frenzied feeling, as if I'm just bouncing around like a pinball in an undisciplined way.

Some jobs are more like plumbing, some more like creative writing, some more like planning and architecture. It really depends on the project.

Haven't heard plumbers launching side plumbing projects. But who knows, perhaps they do and just don't post on HN.

It's a spectrum. Most projects span the entire spectrum. Lots of boring plumbing work, and a little bit of brilliant algorithmic work.

Both are crafts, full of art and love.