The long road that is short

It was in a job interview that I really first thought about the difference between writing code and programming. The conversation went something like this.

Potential Boss: Tell me about your statistical software experience. Do you program?

Me: I write my own code.

PB: Yes, but do you program?

Me: Ummm...

PB: Hmmm...Do you use macros?

Me: Oh! Yes.

Programming involves writing code, but writing code is not necessarily programming. I've become hypersensitive to this distinction since that experience. Although I had a tacit understanding of it, I never really separated the two things out.

Then this morning I came across a great quote in Michael N. Mitchell's Data Management Using Stata: A Practical Handbook that reads:

"The word programming can be a loaded word. I use it here to describe the creation of a series of commands that can be easily repeated to perform a given task. As such, this chapter is about how to create a series of Stata commands that [can] be easily repeated to perform data-management and data analysis tasks. But you might say that you already know how to use Stata for your data management and data analysis. Why spend time learning about programming? My colleague at UCLA, Phil Ender, had a wise saying that I loved: 'There is the short road that is long and the long road that is short.' Investing time in learning and applying programming strategies may seem like it will cost you extra time, but at the end of your research project, you will find that it is part of the 'long road that is short.'" (http://www.stata.com/bookstore/data-management-using-stata/, p. 278)

This will be my new mantra..."the long road that is short"