Becoming A Craftsman

Interesting new book on craftsmanship. 

All craftsmanship [is] skill developed to a high degree.  By one commonly used measure, about ten thousand hours of experience is required to produce a [craftsman] ... as skill progresses, it becomes more problem-attuned ... whereas people with primitive levels of skill struggle more exclusively on getting things to work  ... At its higher reaches, technique is no longer a mechanical activity; people can fell fully and think deeply what they are doing once they do it well.

Producing a chair that holds a persons weight does not make you a master carpenter, producing a software program that doesn't crash does not make you an architect. 

Many programmers simply progress through more sophisticated forms of trial and error without ever really mastering their craft.  That is a shame.