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> To me, it seems more like casting magic spells. Younger engineers using those libraries—almost always without understanding how they work—are just casting spells without any understanding of the magic behind them.

Isn't casting spells one of the key metaphors of SICP, the wizard book? Concepts as objects, spirits controlled by their names, and abstraction barriers preventing a consumer from needing to know implementation details?

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Yes, and SICP was the book taking you through the abstraction barrier. Toto showing you the Wizard of Oz, behind the curtain.

The point of the bureaucratic approach is that how you use the spells together is more important than individual skill in making your own spells. This is more comfortable to bureaucrats than outright talk of wizardry, where clearly a wizard can do things that a bureaucrat cannot even explain.

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