The Creators vs. the Users

I admire people who create. I was thinking about this topic as sat in the passenger seat while my carpool partner drove his red Saturn coupe down HWY 18 tonight. He was describing to me how he wrote the software that runs his blog while I sat there thinking to myself, “Why not just install WordPress and spend your time writing?”

But I was missed the point entirely. He created his software not because he felt he could create something better than WordPress. No, he was creating something because he could. He told me about the features he was working on that are easily available through WordPress plugins. But he wouldn’t care. His joy came through creating the exact feature he was after. The thought of using someone else’s plugin wasn’t acceptable.

There are people like me who don’t create. We use. We take. To borrow a line from Pink Floyd, we “beg, borrow and steal”. That’s not a bad thing either. In the case of WordPress, I’m able to focus my time and energy on writing and getting my opinion out there.

But I’m a bit jealous of those who can create. Those who look at a problem and decided to craft a solution. It’s possible that my carpool partner enjoys coding more than writing. Whatever the case, he’s contributing while I’m taking.