All good points, but this is not just specific to programming IMO. I work as a sales engineer for a networking company and I face the same issues as you when I

All good points, but this is not just specific to programming IMO. I work as a sales engineer for a networking company and I face the same issues as you when I work with customers who use our products. Documentation is never good, you're always solving customer problems so you never really have time to dig deep (read 391 page manuals are out of the question), new features are not described correctly and when I try to lab things up (demo or otherwise) there are about 100 things that can go wrong (I made up that number but you get the idea). Great article though- I think it applies to most technical roles.