[mingusrude]

> ...akin to that of a poet/painter/artist.

Anecdotally, programmer colleagues that view themselves as artists are generally harder to work with than those that identifies as craftsmen. It's generally much easier to have a sound argument about someone's work if they don't view it as their art.

[p_l]

"Craft" is very much an emotional identity and art form, and for many people craft is fun as well - maybe not the exact same emotion, but for me craft is the quiet kind of fun.

[dgb23]

I identify as a craftsman but I resonate with the above comment.

Ultimately programming is half technical (what does the computer do) and half human expression (reading and writing code).

The latter [0] is really more of an art than a science or an engineering discipline. Look at all the attempts to prove that one particular way of writing programs is more productive, comprehensible or maintainable than others. They all failed in unique ways, perhaps because human communication is highly complex and contextual. The only thing we all might agree on is "consistency is good".

[0] The former is in my opinion generally overlooked in many fields, even though it's the most measurable. But it is apparently often in conflict with with the latter unfortunately.