> should I guess you're not and that your sole reason for responding is defensiveness in wanting to believe you're smarter than software developers?

You can guess that, and honestly it's not even a terrible guess. But it makes you a hypocrite. If you're offended by someone making this kind of assumption about you, reciprocating it isn't going to bring down barriers to communication.

> Or maybe we can try again?

You deflected entirely from the comment, which is fine. But then why reply at all? It sounds like you just want to be defensive.