Today is finally D-day! My book The Creative Programmer is finally released as a "MEAP", a Manning Early Access Release. That means exactly the same as the Early Access Steam releases such as Baldur's Gate III---we're still working on it, but you can check out the product now (1) at a reduced price and (2) provide very helpful feedback that gets added back into the book!

The Creative Programmer is the result of 11 years of experience as a software engineer combined with 4 years of academic research on creativity in context of programming problem solving. I have published the odd paper here and there on creativity and wrote about it on this blog, but these texts are usually dry and filled with academic jargon. I wanted to give something back to the programming community and somehow translate our scientific findings and the latest info on creativity in cognitive psychology, pedagogy, and computer science, into a practical book full of exercises, witty jokes and experience reports.

From the Manning product page:

Creativity is essential to being a successful programmer. The stories, examples, and groundbreaking research in this book will help you unleash your creative potential!

Well, groundbreaking is probably quite exaggerated, but still. It's a technology-agnostic book, meaning contrary to most Manning books, it does not focus on a single technology. Instead, anyone even remotely involved with programming or tech can learn something from it.

Inside The Creative Programmer you’ll learn insights into creativity like: The seven dimensions of creativity in software engineering, The scientific understanding of creativity and how it translates to programming, Actionable advice and thinking exercises that will make you a better programmer, Innovative communication skills for working more efficiently on a team, Creative problem solving techniques for tackling complex challenges.

Check out the book at https://www.manning.com/books/the-creative-programmer. If you apply code au35gro, you get 35% off! That discount code is valid indefinitely. Be sure to also check out Manning's new releases deals.

You get chapter 1--4, and 5--9 have been written but are currently in peer review. Expect more to be added gradually very soon, which of course are added for free if you buy it now. The contents is based on our exploration of creativity in software engineering, and focuses on those seven main themes: technical knowledge, communication, constraints, critical thinking, curiosity, creative state of mind, and creative techniques.

Oh, and it contains references to Monkey Island (of course it does!), Dizzy, DOOM, the Game Boy CPU, Yoku's Island Expess, and much more.

Feedback and helping me spread the word is greatly appreciated. If you already did so: thanks so much! I think it's very important to show publishers that "non-technical technical books" like these and Felienne Hermans' The Programmer's Brain are very much needed, next to the technology-specific deep-dives that Manning's In Action books usually are.

Let me know what you think!