Make The Work Legible
Andrew Stanton talking about screenplay formatting as a kind of codified language:
There’s a very strict formatting to screenwriting which is similar to, I guess, closer to music where everybody understands the measures, the bars, the notes, the rhythm, the beats.
David Ogilvy on advertising's failure to codify:
What is the reason for this failure to codify experience? Is it that advertising does not attract inquiring minds? Is it that any kind of scientific method is beyond the grasp of ‘creative’ people? Are they afraid that knowledge would impose some discipline on their work?
Codification is incredibly underrated, even more so in the era of AI-assisted creation.
The lack of codification in game development has always surprised me. It's something we did very well at Denki, codifying both our iterative development process and our design principles.
Codification is not the opposite of creativity.
It is how taste, process and intent survive contact with collaborators (human or machine). Knowing what you mean by good matters more than ever.