Do you not see how ripe your metaphor is for a superficial interpretation by the kind of impressionable readers that currently go around advertising for ninja coworkers? A master would have addressed that more directly in the essay: the 'frustrated expert' vignette is good, but should be expanded so that every affected ninja comes away with the realization that they are a moron. You can't leave any room for aspirational mastery. NONE.
This whole "Listen to how much Programming is like _____" thing is overdone. We're scientists, engineers, craftsmen, painters, artists, etc. and now we're also martial artists. I just don't understand why we can't be happy with being Computer Programmers.
And I understand that a rational criticism of me saying this is "well obviously this guy isn't exploring the deeper meaning of what's said here," but why does there need to be a deeper meaning behind this all? It just seems so meta.
"I just don't understand why we can't be happy with being Computer Programmers."
Because if you ask 5 people you'll get 8 different descriptions of what "Computer Programmer" means.
Which is fine, because it leads to discussion, and that's where analogy and metaphor come in handy to explain a point of view.
The master moves with little effort and achieves his ends efficiently and easily.
This is not to say that a programmer is a kung-fu expert, instead that mastery is about efficiency.
Between master and student is a third step called "expert" where the student has the required skill but does not yet possess the efficiency mindset. I too have witnessed skilled programmers doing far more work than necessary for no reason.