For a while in my twenties & thirties, I would ask myself this question every so often, not out of the expectation of finding any expressible answer, but for the feeling it would provoke.
It was a feeling of stretching through the latent space of all concepts to find regions of similarity between the two practices, which are very different on the surface.
How is Unix like literature?
The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature
"How is programming like dancing" is a bridge between the technical side and the soft-squishy-warm-fuzzy-love-thrills side. And those are both so important to me... I no longer want to think just about "work", narrowly defined, usually as something strictly related to producing a technical product for a company. "Life's work" will be more than that, will have a creative component, not just in the sense of having the autonomy to make design decisions in the service of someone else's organization and vision, but in the sense of being able to pursue my own. (2013)
How is programming NOT like dancing?
Language: since feeling is first