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Re:Stefano’s Linotype: Why Programmers Suck at CSS Design (C... by run4yourlives on Tuesday October 28, 2008 @11:50AM (#346396)
Any halfway intelligent human being can teach themselves a very wide variety of trades.

Sure they can, but are you saying there is no difference between the guy playing guitar at the local subway stop and Eddie Van Halen?

Design is a skill just like programming is a skill. To suggest that everyone can be equally talented in a particular element is to demean the trade and the people in it.

Re:Stefano’s Linotype: Why Programmers Suck at CSS Design (C... by wheels on Tuesday October 28, 2008 @03:53PM (#346698)
I'd say Eddie Van Halen is a perfect example of how you can work on something for years, master it technically, and still not have taste.
Re:Stefano’s Linotype: Why Programmers Suck at CSS Design (C... by wensing on Tuesday October 28, 2008 @12:09PM (#346418)
To suggest that everyone can be equally talented in a particular element is to demean the trade and the people in it.

Maybe. But I would argue that most people's talent is the result of persistent hard work in that discipline. And that is a compliment.

Sometimes people use "I'm not a designer" as an excuse for why they aren't good at design, as if it's something you need to be born with. It could be that they've just never cared enough to try, but to make themselves feel better they dismiss it as an impossibility.

When you're looking far up the ladder it's tempting to call it a gift at birth--when you're only a notch below, it's easier to see it as the result of hard work. What drives those people is another question.