>So, we're not going to resolve the question in favor of either #1 or #2. Those personas are like the two daemons on the shoulders of anyone who does programmin

>So, we're not going to resolve the question in favor of either #1 or #2. Those personas are like the two daemons on the shoulders of anyone who does programming... or politics... or law... or urban planning... or economics...< Agreed...it's the fluid center, the moderate, the worker ant that actually moves things forward by taking the best the extremes--idealists, pragmatists--have to offer and making things work on a practical level...the "persona #3" you allude to... I'm reminded of a quote from Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance... "The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed." That tranquility...that satisfaction...that's it in a nutshell, whether the "machine" is simple or complex...the route to producing that machine doesn't much matter...the end result does...