As a painter and a programmer I'm very wary of comparisons between the two, but I think the article was getting at something different. Namely: the daily pract

As a painter and a programmer I'm very wary of comparisons between the two, but I think the article was getting at something different. Namely: the daily practice of doing what you do. This can be any discipline, and it can be multiple disciplines for the same person. It does look like there's a certain advantage to quickly learning the latest thing, but that's a job-hopper's advantage. I don't think the fast learning of fashionable things makes one a better or more respected engineer than the deep learning of useful things. (I admit there may be more money for job hoppers, in case that's the measure of success here.) Success as an artist is a much more complex, chimeric thing than just creativity + marketing. But it doesn't happen without a lot of discipline, even if it's the same boring discipline one can achieve by going to the gym three times a week. If you study the great artists throughout history, even contemporary ones, you see time after time the "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration" formula.