I always found this counterpoint article fatuous. To which I'd add, what hackers and painters don't have in common is everything else. The fatuousness of the p

I always found this counterpoint article fatuous. To which I'd add, what hackers and painters don't have in common is everything else. The fatuousness of the parallel becomes obvious if you think for five seconds about what computer programmers and painters actually do. Computer programmers cause a machine to perform a sequence of transformations on electronically stored data. Painters apply colored goo to cloth using animal hairs tied to a stick. How many programmers sit down and say "It's time to do some electronic data transformations"? How many painters say "Time to push some paint"? PG is right that programming is a fundamentally creative activity, and so are the visual arts. Plenty of programmers forget that. It's not that the medium is irrelevant, but then again PG isn't claiming complete identity between programming and painting. (Personally, I prefer the analogy of programming to either writing or music composition, because the writing connection is quite strong. http://www.infoq.com/presentations/dahl-programming-minimalism http://www.infoq.com/presentations/dahl-programming-minimali... if you're interested.)