Edgar Allen Poe

Offered a case study of how he composes his works in "The Philosophy of Composition."

"I select 'The Raven' as most generally known. It is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its composition is referrible either to accident or intuition � that the work proceeded step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem."

Poe reflected a moment at his surprise that he hadn't seen such a careful case study of the authors' craft before. He suspected that perhaps vanity and incentive to cultivate a certain image may have had more to do with this than any other single cause:

"Most writers � poets in especial � prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy � an ecstatic intuition � and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought � at the true purposes seized only at the last moment � at the innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of full view � at the fully matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable � at the cautious selections and rejections � at the painful erasures and interpolations..."

http://www.eapoe.org/works/essays/philcomp.htm

GeraldSussman cited this case study when mentioning his belief that scientists, artists, and other skilled people actually use similar approaches to their work. (In his ArsDigita colloquium "The Legacy of Computer Science.")

And with the other approach used by scientists, artists, and other skilled people exemplified by the famous story of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan -- Or, A Vision In a Dream, a Fragment"

The infamous "person from Porlock" does, of course, represent the role that management typically plays. ;-)

See related discussion in FeynmanAlgorithm

It's Allan, not Allen. EdgarAllanPoe