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"Recruiters have noticed that the mental qualities that make a good computer programmer resemble those that might get you diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome... an addiction to repetitive tasks"

I think someone is forgetting one of the three virtues of programming: laziness.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris

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Typing out class and function declarations, if-then-else constructs, and recompiling on a regular basis is tediously repetitive to most people. It doesn't necessarily mean you're repeating the same program. Likewise, most techno music sounds repetitive to the disinterested listener, notwithstanding the large relative variations that occur within the music.

I thought the same thing. If there's anything a good programmer shouldn't be doing, it's repetitive tasks. If you're coding the same thing over and over again, you're doing it wrong.

By the time I find myself doing something for the third time, I start thinking: automation.

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