As life's, the nature of programming is a paradox: it's about two mutually-opposing views taking place simultaneously. Programming is very much about computer

As life's, the nature of programming is a paradox: it's about two mutually-opposing views taking place simultaneously. Programming is very much about computer science's theoretic abstractions as well as about bit-flipping in the physical reality of electric circuits. The trick is that while you must be at least partially aware of both views in order to be a good programmer, you can't program solely from one of them only. CS abstractions won't teach you to work intimately with your computer and, conversely, showing great command of your machine by knowing its eletronic nature and mastering its assembly language won't get you far until you can see on a high level what you're doing. Programming could be said to be the skill of merging—or making— the theory and practice into a working program, and with the emphasis on the merging part itself instead of what is being merged. For example, at the same time, a good programmer must know both something about CS and electrics while still most of the programming work is about the art of making, which is yet another thing. So abstractions are there. And they're there to assist you and provide solid ground to build on but at the same time, however, you can't rely on them either.