Engineering Poetry? Limericks? Haiku?

Poetry for Engineers? I know.. it sounds a little out there and I am not just cheating and saying an Engineering degree from the University of Limerick. This was just too good of a follow up to the whole idea of there being other non-technical abilities that make someone a better programmer or Engineer. I encountered a news article on how Georgia Tech is now teaching poetry to their Engineers. By making this part of the curriculum the school is trying to teach students how to leverage their full mind and potential. One of the analogies that was used when describing good poetry could also be applied to good code.

"If something is good, it will stick around. That's just a fact of history. If something is not good, it will dry up ... "

Long, long pause for dramatic effect.

"And it will blow away."

Nicely said professor Lux.

The other aspect of this that I think is interesting is along the same lines as the recent flurry of music posts. Poetry is historically a right brain activity with some left brain rules applied for form. When done well it is a blending of the whole brain to get an answer. As pointed out by Dan Pink in his excellent book Whole New Mind the ability to use both halves of our brain is now required to be successful. If you are a rule and "left brain" only type of person... eventually your job will be automated or offshored. But if you can utilize your whole brain there will ALWAYS be work for you.

Consider this the next time you have to clean your toilet. (I know that seems like a sudden context shift, but humor me for a moment) Your toilet brush is no longer just a toilet brush. That Target toilet brush is not just a toilet brush, it is a designer toilet brush, selected from over 5 different hues and tones from shiny red to stainless steel to be uniquely you. That is how much of a world of abundance we now live in... we now include design in our toilet brushes. (No I did not enter a contest to see how many times I could put toilet brush in a post... but once I got started I just couldn't stop) Our parents and certainly our grand parents were thrilled if they could own one home and one car. Now... many of us have multiple cars.

Consider these things as you come up with your next personal development plan. Are you just looking at adding another language? Are there other things that you could take on to grow into a more well rounded and whole brained person?