Hackers and Musicians

Sometimes, a problem is solved using a simple design pattern or a slightly more complex series of simple patterns, an amalgamation of a few. However, all paterns are created by someone. Learning to use the pattern is simply intellectual footwork. The truely creative programmer can do just about anything without writing a single line of code: he solves the problem with the definition of the problem. He thinks on a higher level.

It's like a musician. What makes a musician a musician is not his brilliance. It's his love of making music. Love. He realizes that music is more important than other things. Music is the highest level of abstraction. It is the layer of abstraction that is above ourselves. It is something that we create because it must be.