"A kata is just a simple program that you write over and over again as a way to practice." Sounds like a waste of time. I can see how it would be good for a ph

"A kata is just a simple program that you write over and over again as a way to practice." Sounds like a waste of time. I can see how it would be good for a physical activity where you need to train your muscle memory, but I can just as easily train my programming reflexes by doing my job or working on open source. There are so many things you could program, why make up things to program that don't need to be programmed? Does anyone actually do this? If so, can you describe the ways in which it actually helps you get better.