One of the big differences is that some people can sit down at / pick up a new instrument and in a few minutes be improvising a song they heard once, a week ago

One of the big differences is that some people can sit down at / pick up a new instrument and in a few minutes be improvising a song they heard once, a week ago. with programming, the interface is not kinesthetic so at least for me, the internalization of APIs takes longer (getting down new lexicons seems to have more cognitive load for me than adjusting physical interface -- not that i can play instruments like that or learn music by ear. yet.)