Zen of AI Coding

As with the "Zen of Python" or countless other "Zen of X" treatises, the connection to Zen or to Buddhism is tenuous if it exists at all. As far as I can tell, this author believes "Zen" to mean a collection of short, syllogistic aphorisms. Tim Peters is not a "zen master," like this author says, and has even said about the "Zen of Python": "If I were to change anything, I'd drop the reference to 'Zen.' That wasn't part of the original, and was added by someone else."

Using the word Zen to mean something else—simplicity, calm, a collection of aphorisms, or whatever—only seems reasonable if you've never studied Zen and have no more than a surface-level understanding of what it's about. Could you imagine any other religion being used to describe some aspect of programming? "The Islam of Python." "The Baptist Christianity of AI." These sound ridiculous. It only seems like a reasonable thing to do with Zen because Zen is being caricatured here.