I think either I missed the point of this post or pretty much everyone else did. A post titled "The Narcissism of Small Code Differences" can't possibly be abou

I think either I missed the point of this post or pretty much everyone else did. A post titled "The Narcissism of Small Code Differences" can't possibly be about what the proper way to write something is, about comments, or testing and build servers. If I read it correctly the story is supposed to illustrate the problems that can arise when developers are tempted to rewrite something just for the sake of writing it differently. This should normally get people to think about what causes said urge, but I'm guessing nobody followed that train of thought. Then in your update you brilliantly stated "it’s about the dynamic of programmers eager to rewrite code in their own image, and the hypothesis that our [...] motivation for doing so is to emphasize the small differences between ourselves and others." Since this is something I'm guilty of myself I would have liked to see more comments on your hypothesis and other possible reasons for this interesting phenomenon. I still don't know if I have anything intelligent to say on the topic, I'll have to give this some thought and if I get any insights I'll probably reply on my blog.