Rentzsch has a wonderful post about why programmers really don’t like to code (instead, we actually like to solve problems).

…programmers get pissed when they have to write code. “I just want to update this field in this file, why do I have to write an XML parser?”

If programmers liked to code, we’d all be writing in machine language to this day. You can write that stuff all day and get precious little of the real problem solved.

A true mantra for the Rubyist.

He continues by saying something that entirely explains why I so joyously chose to Lovetastic from scratch from the ground up.

Programmers desire to rewrite because they know that after starting with a clean sheet of paper and building it all again, at the end they’ll understand the whole. Programmers write code to learn.

“Real” programming isn’t about memorizing API calls, being a memory-management ninja, or mucking about in the lowest levels of the system. It’s about expressing design ideas, understanding complexity by rendering it elegant, building things, and, most importantly, problem-solving.