The Sheer Joy of Making Things

Frederick P. Brooks, “The Mythical Man-Month”, 1972:

The sheer joy of making things… the fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work in subtle cycles… the delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination.