To me it doesn’t seem to speak at all to “how good” anybody is, just to the nature of the work the job demands.
A fine artist will paint a better portrait, but they might not be the right hire to get a housing development painted and shipped (so to speak).
The fine artist may be less good at house painting than the tradesman, the tradesman may be less good at portraiture than the fine artist.
There’s always the possibility that somebody could be good at both, but they’re orthogonal: both dip something in paint, but that’s where the similarities end.
It’s pretty dismissive of painters to say it requires no decisions.
Painting requires a lot of decisions, from the coverage, speed of drying, (for additional layers) protecting the environment, ensuring equal coverage (paint guns are harder than they look for quality and consistent coverage).
Cut in near non-painted features is a whole thing as well.
But sure, let’s dismiss an entire trade because SWE is so special.
Oh man. I felt that way before I jumped into drywall work in a family member’s house—it’s making something white, how hard could it be? MAN did my repair job come out streaky and cracked. And it took me about 2 weeks to get through one wall and a ceiling. Poorly.
I feel that way when I show up at corporate software shops too—think cubicle farms toiling at the coalface of some massive ancient line-of-business application. I would not survive there. And the company needs people who would thrive there, instead of me.
A fine artist will paint a better portrait, but they might not be the right hire to get a housing development painted and shipped (so to speak).
The fine artist may be less good at house painting than the tradesman, the tradesman may be less good at portraiture than the fine artist.
There’s always the possibility that somebody could be good at both, but they’re orthogonal: both dip something in paint, but that’s where the similarities end.