I think your passive vs active distinction is a good one but I don't think that was the direction taken in the post, the distinction drawn here is how solutions

I think your passive vs active distinction is a good one but I don't think that was the direction taken in the post, the distinction drawn here is how solutions to problems are chosen. Roughly: pop culture will chose a solution based on fashion while a craft will chose a solution based on the perceived quality of both the solution itself and the result. Obviously these two aspects are mixed in reality but the point that it's more fashion than craft is one I find convincing. What I don't find convincing is the defence of fashion driven programming techniques. Too much of an ode to mediocrity for my taste. Pop culture will be mediocre and fashion driven on it's own, the only thing pushing it to be better is the craftspeople complaining about it. As more and more of our infrastructure runs on software we need people pushing for more engineering discipline, not less.