
Seeing this I of course got thinking if this somehow equates to software and it's development.
OK, lets compare the creation of folk art and software.
- If you have two different software groups create an application with only vague design or requirements, how different would the resulting applications be?
- How much of of the developers personality and perceptions be projected into the code, language, operation, UI, features, stability, etc?
- How maintainable would the code be? (Seeing as most of a projects life is spent in maintaining, would this be a concern?)
- Would the different teams refer to their work as "Engineering" and how would they justify this?
- At the completion of the applications (or after a set period of time), what would prospective buyers (customers) pay for the applications and what would their comments be?
- How do you build a business on developing software like this? and getting customers to pay big money for it?

I love folk art. I get a different view of the world and my take on it. I even like Folk software development once in a while and the freedom and creativity it brings.
However there is the time and place for folk art and not every business can support it. For the times when detail designs, requirements, timetables and expected results must be attained, folk software development may not be the best choice.
But the world needs both.
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