I agree with everything you say except for the "I simply cannot commit to one without creating a deficiency in the other". IMHO achieving excellence in both i

I agree with everything you say except for the "I simply cannot commit to one without creating a deficiency in the other". IMHO achieving excellence in both is unrealistic and VERY hard. Doable but improbable. But I really do think you can be good at both. Not perfect, not exceptional, but good. And for 99% of the world, good is more than enough. The excuse part, is because I have met an enormous amount of people that use that as an excuse to not learn new things (IMHO, to be lazy). Yes, it's hard to understand programming, but many people simply accept the "if I learn this my design will suffer" (and vice-versa). With that in mind, they don't even have to try. I also agree completely about the theory/reality dilemma, people are very different and can never be treated as the same. My only problem is with people that excuse themselves from learning something new on false premises.