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Comment by mike_herrera | Hacker News Reader

Not in the slightest. As a counter-example, challenging food and music comes to mind.

How are those counter-examples?

In the same way that being able to tell the difference between good and bad code takes time for a novice. Just because you have to learn to distinguish what makes some code more easily understood, easier to maintain, more robust, etc., doesn't make the notion of telling good from bad a bogus pursuit.

The code analogy is silly. With wine (or food) we're talking about a fundamental sense we all have. Everyone can eat and drink and either the stuff tastes good to people or it doesn't. And that's the point of the food/drink to begin with. The point of code is not generally to appeal to novices' innate sense of code aesthetics.

Chef: You stupid amateurs could never appreciate my noodles!

Tampopo: But people who eat noodles are all amateurs. So why make noodles amateurs can't appreciate?

Consumable subjective experiences (fine art, wine, food, music) are not always naturally pleasing on the first-go. Learning of the nuances, and being taught to identify the existence/lack of those nuances, aid in development of an opinion.

While I happen to agree that people should just "buy what they like," the path to forming an opinion is usually a guided one.

I do not watch American Football. I understand the overall rules of the game, and I don't particularly enjoy it.

However, I have not immersed myself in the game enough to be able to understand what is a good play and what is a great play. I don't understand the lingo, I don't understand the strategy and I don't understand the tactics.

Am I in a position to judge then whether one player (or game) is better than another? I don't believe I am.

Substitute with chess if you like. A chess aficionado may find a lot of pleasurable excitement in a move that an amateur may see as pointless.

There are also concepts you've heard of such as a "musician's musician" or a "comedian's comedian" - wherein deep knowledge of the craft gives a different appreciation of the experience.

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