Am watching the movie "Flyboys" abut WWI and the pilots who fought in the first fighter-planes. In one scene, these pilots are painting their personal emblems on their own planes. And that made me think a bit... I have a colleague who is also an amateur-photographer. Another one who plays a lot of Rockstar who happens to like playing the guitar. I myself am fond of rendering my own 3D art. And the three of us are considered the best professionals in my company. Looking at my other colleagues, I noticed that we're also the only ones who are also active in some kind of art-form (music, photos, digital art) while the others are a bit more mundane, interested in sports or just busy with their children and family.
So, does having some secondary artistic skills really make developers better at their work or is this just my Ego? :-)
Let me make the Q more clear, to make it less suggestive-looking: If you look at yourself, do you consider yourself a good developer? And do you also have a certain amount of interest in something artistic? Like painting, photography or music? Yes or no will do but feel free to explain more if you do see a relation.
(Okay, you don't have top be good at art, but you need to have an interest.)