Designer vs Developer #4: Are designers born or made?

Google Design Advocate Mustafa Kurtuldu discusses whether design and development is a natural ability you are born with or whether life opportunities and environment dictate one’s successes in the field

Ada Lovelace. Artist: Alfred Edward Chalon, licence: public domain

Designer vs Developer by Google Design Advocate Mustafa Kurtuldu is a series of videos aimed at improving understanding foster greater understanding between the two camps. Each video, in which Kurtuldu has a conversation with a different industry expert, is accompanied by an essay (below) which delves deeper into the topic discussed.

Imagine you’re Ada Lovelace. Your father is one of the most creative romantic poets of his generation and held up in high esteem by people from around the world. His work is an inspiration to revolutionaries across Europe, moving them emotionally with the flick of his quill. Your mother is accomplished in multiple fields including science and philosophy and committed to social causes such as prison reform and the abolition of slavery. Her mathematical skills are so advanced that your father called her the “princess of parallelograms.”