You equate art with originality, but Knuth do not, and most arts except "Contemporary Art" did not either. Just turn your eyes to Quattrocento or Chinese landscapes: these artists are not trying to invent something or be original. Listen to Bach: where is the inventions? It is just a natural flow of notes in a structuring harmonic frame. I do not imagine Bach thinking "Let's do something unheard" when writing his partitions.
They might not try to invent something original, but they end up with something original and touching people deep in their psyche. Compare that to a perfectly fluent user interface you "just love". Is that a craft? Or is there something more in it? Can you really quantify and automate the process of coming up with it?
My view is that most people that view programming as a craft are middle managers that somehow need to get ants working on whatever they need. However if your innate inspiration comes from somewhere else, if you "feel" the algorithms and their optimality, wake up during nights when inspiration knocks on your the door of your mind to start working on an idea you just saw with your inner eye, you won't view programming as a craft at all.
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You equate art with originality, but Knuth do not, and most arts except "Contemporary Art" did not either. Just turn your eyes to Quattrocento or Chinese landscapes: these artists are not trying to invent something or be original. Listen to Bach: where is the inventions? It is just a natural flow of notes in a structuring harmonic frame. I do not imagine Bach thinking "Let's do something unheard" when writing his partitions.
They might not try to invent something original, but they end up with something original and touching people deep in their psyche. Compare that to a perfectly fluent user interface you "just love". Is that a craft? Or is there something more in it? Can you really quantify and automate the process of coming up with it?
My view is that most people that view programming as a craft are middle managers that somehow need to get ants working on whatever they need. However if your innate inspiration comes from somewhere else, if you "feel" the algorithms and their optimality, wake up during nights when inspiration knocks on your the door of your mind to start working on an idea you just saw with your inner eye, you won't view programming as a craft at all.