Point taken on the simile. It's like that like never existed. As to the rest, I dunno. Let's consider the following scenario: every time you wrote something

Point taken on the simile. It's like that like never existed. As to the rest, I dunno. Let's consider the following scenario: every time you wrote something down on paper, there was a chance the paper would spontaneously burst into flame. There are strict, reproducible rules governing when the paper would and would not catch on fire. People go to school to learn these rules, which are varied and subtle. In this world I've described, is the best writer a person who can write the most essays that don't spontaneously combust? I feel like as programmers we think that because we can easily quantify whether something works, we can also quantify whether it's good. Or worse, that everything which doesn't burn away is essentially the same: just words on paper. It's simply not true. The fact that writing a program feels more practical than writing a novel doesn't change that.