Combining a few other answers, I'd say it's a lot like writing a goosebumps (choose your own adventure) book in another language. While I do like the analogy o

Combining a few other answers, I'd say it's a lot like writing a goosebumps (choose your own adventure) book in another language. While I do like the analogy of writing instructions for someone who is very dumb, that analogy doesn't capture the different paths of execution that a program can take.