I'm somewhere in the middle. I see software development as an art form, however it's not disconnected from its solid scientific roots.
Sometimes, the art part is for fun (i.e.: your weekend project), sometimes it's for pushing systems to the limit (i.e.: scientific programming, demoscene, or where performance is really needed).
In my case, the art is exploiting the hardware or the theory in a way that it works smoothly and very performant for the cases you have.
This doesn't mean the deadlines doesn't matter, and explicit, slow, but very robust code doesn't have its place. On the contrary, it has many places. We need to make the correct trade-offs to get our job done the best way possible.
On the mentoring side, training people is hard, because of both parties. Low ego, open mindedness and being open to being wrong is very important. I try to mentor some people around me, and I encourage them to go further than I did. Lastly, I find passing the "old way" to new generations very valuable. While these old ways are inevitably lower level and less hip, they're tried, stood the test of the time, and generally performant enough (or very performant in some cases).
Sometimes, the art part is for fun (i.e.: your weekend project), sometimes it's for pushing systems to the limit (i.e.: scientific programming, demoscene, or where performance is really needed).
In my case, the art is exploiting the hardware or the theory in a way that it works smoothly and very performant for the cases you have.
This doesn't mean the deadlines doesn't matter, and explicit, slow, but very robust code doesn't have its place. On the contrary, it has many places. We need to make the correct trade-offs to get our job done the best way possible.
On the mentoring side, training people is hard, because of both parties. Low ego, open mindedness and being open to being wrong is very important. I try to mentor some people around me, and I encourage them to go further than I did. Lastly, I find passing the "old way" to new generations very valuable. While these old ways are inevitably lower level and less hip, they're tried, stood the test of the time, and generally performant enough (or very performant in some cases).