How good you are

How good you are depends on how many poems you have written in your life

A Distinguished Engineer at Sun, Richard Gabriel, says:

Writing code certainly feels very similar to writing poetry. When I'm writing poetry, it feels like the center of my thinking is in a particular place, and when I'm writing code the center of my thinking feels in the same kind of place.

http://java.sun.com/features/2002/11/gabriel_qa.html