I agree that if we define the individual instructions to always be wholly independent, then sure, it is more straightforward. While I'd probably argue that it

I agree that if we define the individual instructions to always be wholly independent, then sure, it is more straightforward. While I'd probably argue that it is still more difficult to conceptualize, the statement we're discussing is presented as broad and general. I'd call it far less misleading if it said something like: There is a common myth in software development that parallel programming *has* to be hard.