I think he needs to read 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. Programming, like architecture, medicine, or sculpture, is an art. Those at the bottom of the profession see only the mechanical process of churning out code, drawing a room, prescribing medication, and making a pot from clay.

Those at the top are, for lack of a better term, at one with their profession, and programming is certainly no different. A good programmer can feel, in a very visceral way, the difference between good and bad code, in the same way that the average person can feel the difference between Michelangelo and street graffiti. I consider myself to be only a very mediocre coder, and yet every now and then, I see a program that is just... beautiful. Aesthetically pleasing. And I couldn't tell you why.

Things like that can't be diagramed or taught; it's up to the individual to grow that seed of what Pirsig calls 'Quality' within themselves.