---
comments: true
date: 2013-11-24 13:25:12
layout: post
slug: the-problems-with-crafting-code
title: The problems with ‘crafting’ code
categories:
- Web Development
- Opinion
tag:
meta: "Some thoughts on our use of the word ‘craft’ to describe our work"
---

A few months ago, [Mark Boulton](https://twitter.com/markboulton) and I had a
very brief chat about the use of the word _craft_ applied to (web) design and
development, and how we both disagreed with and disliked it. Mark pipped me to
the post with [his brilliant article on the
subject](http://markboulton.co.uk/journal/notacraftsman) (by a number of months)
but after [a tweet I made earlier
today](https://twitter.com/csswizardry/status/404548396863991808), I thought I
would write down my own thoughts as well…

## What ‘craft’ means

The instant problem I have with the word <i>craft</i> applied to web design and,
more specifically, _development_, is the image it brings. Craft is, by its very
nature, slow, meticulous, bespoke, indulgent, self-serving, and inefficient.
Code should be _none_ of these things. Rather, _good_ code should be none of
these things. Code should be robust, scalable, efficient, performant, reusable,
testable (if appropriate), measurable, quantifiable. Code is _not_ an art form,
it is a means to an end, and to craft it is entirely unsuitable.

Further, and on a very personal and opinionated level, I just feel the word is
so pretentious. The idea of applying such a ‘quaint’ term to such a 21st Century
industry seems like nothing more than an attempt to be a bit cute. Personally, I
find the notion that pixels and what are essentially ones-and-zeroes can somehow
be ‘crafted’ quite obviously absurd. We continually use some of the most
powerful and cutting edge technology currently available to us, and then try and
back-port it to manufacturing methods that—for the most part—died out entire
centuries ago. It just seems so _odd_ and indulgent.

## Quality

When a lot of people talk about craft, or say that they <i>hand-craft their
code</i>, what they really mean is that it is of a certain quality, and this is
a _good_ thing. Quality is paramount, but ‘crafting’ your code is not a
guarantee of that. If anything, crafted items tend to contain flaws,
inaccuracies and nuances (<q>All items are hand-crafted.</q> Well why haven’t
you found the best way of making them, and then made them all to that exact same
standard?). In the web development world, we call these bugs, and these are a
_bad_ thing.

If you want to say your code is of a certain quality, talk about the aspects of
it that matter; talk about its scalability, talk about its performance, talk
about its architecture. These are all things that matter. Clients don’t care if
their site was ‘meticulously hand-crafted’, they care that their site isn’t
going to break every few weeks, and that it won’t cost them a lot of money to
maintain.

Treating code as a craft is entirely the wrong angle and approach to take. It’s
a self-serving, masturbatory word that implies folly and indulgence. It implies
love and attachment rather than quality, and, as Mark puts _very_ well in his
piece, spending a client’s money on _your_ indulgence is irresponsible and
unprofessional.

When people say they hand-craft their code, I don’t disagree with their
sentiment, I disagree with their _wording_. I have no doubt that people put a
lot of effort into their work, and take a lot of pride in it. I take an
_incredible_ amount of pride in my work, but I would never say I ‘craft’
anything about it. I consider it, I test it, I try it, I measure it, and—if it
doesn’t work—I rip it up and I start again; I don’t get attached to it, I don’t
fall in love with it.

I _love_ my job, and take my work very seriously, but to start treating what are
essentially ones and zeroes as a craft, or a labour of love, is entirely
misguided. Our job is more serious than craft, which implies hobby, or pastime.
I don’t want my plumber to ‘lovingly hand-craft his U-bends’, I want a plumber
who knows how to solve my problem properly, efficiently, and lastingly. If he
loves his work, that’s a bonus—and usually an indicator that he’ll do a great
job—but it’s not how to actually measure the quality of his work; fixing my leak
for good is how I’ll measure that. We as web developers are no different.

{% include promo-case-studies.html %}

## A disservice

I also feel that the word craft actually plays down our role. A word which
conjures images—as Mark painted—of someone sat in a shed, isolated, poring over
the fine details of something in an almost obsessive manner, does not
appropriately describe what we do day in, day out; we solve peoples’ business
problems using design and code. Surely that sounds far more impressive _and_
accurate than saying we craft things, no?

People employ us because they have a problem and we are part of the solution.
We’re employed because we can design something that will engage more users who
will spend more money, or because we can build websites that are _fast_, and
work on any device you care to throw at it, and we base that on the _objective_.
We measure it, we know it will work, and if it doesn’t work, we start again. We
don’t design and build to serve ourselves, we design and build to serve our
clients (whoever they may be, even ourselves).

Lastly, this is not an exercise in <q>I’m right, you’re wrong</q>, this is
entirely my own opinion, and it is one I have held and pondered for a _long_
time. Your opinion may be entirely different, and that’s fine. I’m not trying to
be right, or to tell people they’re wrong to use the word ‘craft’, I’m just
putting forward the reasons _I_ feel the word is unsuitable, and why I would
never refer to myself or my work as a <i>craftsman</i>, or <i>crafted</i>.

So, please let me be clear; I mean absolutely no offence to anyone at all. I am
not belittling anyone’s work, suggesting that _individuals_ are pretentious or
self-serving, or suggesting that peoples’ work is not of good quality. My point
is simply that I feel there are better, more appropriate words than ‘craft’ to
describe that quality, particularly when talking about something like code.

## An alternative?

There’s a move now toward people calling themselves software engineers; they
_engineer_ their code. For all this brings with it similar levels of
pretentiousness, it is—to my mind—at least a step in the right direction:

Crafted:

* Slow
* Meticulous
* Bespoke
* Inefficient
* Time-consuming
* Costly
* Indulgent
* Self-serving

Engineered:

* Tested
* Scalable
* Rapid
* Efficient
* Measured
* Robust
* Practical
* Pragmatic

I know to which camp I would rather belong.

In short, I don’t have _any_ qualms with people wanting to make a point of the
quality of their work, and the care and attention they put into it, I just feel
there are far better, more appropriate ways of describing if than words like
<i>craft</i>. **Yes**, put the same amount of effort and pride into your work,
but perhaps there’s a better way of wording it…?