The Programming Talent Myth (2015)
&gt; &gt; The truth is that programming isn&#x27;t a passion or a talent, it is just a bunch of skills that can be learned.<p>This may be true if your definition of programming is the literal act of writing code &#x2F; recalling syntax, and learning new tools. Of course, that&#x27;s not really what programming is. That&#x27;s the easy part.<p>Programming is about problem solving, code is simply the tool. Critical thinking&#x2F;problem solving ability, the ability to think in abstractions, the ability to hold a large amount of information in your head all at once, etc. are all skills, and not skills that the majority of people are particularly good at.<p>We wouldn&#x27;t judge a carpenter on e.g. his&#x2F;her ability to use a saw, or a EE on their ability to use a scope. I never understood why so many put so much emphasis on the tools a software dev knows.