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Non-programmers tend to think that •syntax• is the hard part of programming, but it’s not. The hard part is dealing with unambiguous communication, watching a machine do •exactly what you told it to do• — no matter how wrong you were, or how little sense it makes, or how small the mistake. Nothing makes one feel as stupid as writing code! It’s sorcerer’s apprentice all day every day: fallibility come to life.

Computers make our imaginary ideas talk back to us, and our ideas surprise us.

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