Paul Graham's book Hackers & Painters resonated with me as a teenager, more specifically what he wrote about how code is like paint, or clay. Writing software i

Paul Graham's book Hackers & Painters resonated with me as a teenager, more specifically what he wrote about how code is like paint, or clay. Writing software is like writing essays: you make drafts, iterate, kill your darlings, and even though you may have a single goal in mind, a point to make, things seldom have a definite form. It's an art. It's more of a hacker's mindset, perhaps, but I keep it close to heart still because it's how I stay sane in this business.