I was referring to the "X as a martial art" metaphor in general. Not your piece in particular. I should have been more clear.
This whole "Listen to how much Programming is like _____" thing is overdone. We're scientists, engineers, craftsmen, painters, artists, etc. and now we're also martial artists. I just don't understand why we can't be happy with being Computer Programmers.
And I understand that a rational criticism of me saying this is "well obviously this guy isn't exploring the deeper meaning of what's said here," but why does there need to be a deeper meaning behind this all? It just seems so meta.
The master programmer is to the novice programmer what the Martial arts master is to the student.
The master moves with little effort and achieves his ends efficiently and easily.
This is not to say that a programmer is a kung-fu expert, instead that mastery is about efficiency.
Between master and student is a third step called "expert" where the student has the required skill but does not yet possess the efficiency mindset. I too have witnessed skilled programmers doing far more work than necessary for no reason.
This whole "Listen to how much Programming is like _____" thing is overdone. We're scientists, engineers, craftsmen, painters, artists, etc. and now we're also martial artists. I just don't understand why we can't be happy with being Computer Programmers.
And I understand that a rational criticism of me saying this is "well obviously this guy isn't exploring the deeper meaning of what's said here," but why does there need to be a deeper meaning behind this all? It just seems so meta.