Like all cultures, programmers have their pecking order, a hierarchy determined by conflict. Knowledge is the sole determinant of respect in programmer culture. The natural response of individuals to these cultural expectations is to project an image of vast expertise. Just as a cat will arch his back and bush his tail to make himself appear larger, the programmer will assert his knowledge on just about any subject to make his expertise appear larger than it really is. But here is where the similarity between cats and programmers ends.
Most cats are smart enough, after all the hissing and spitting and arching, to turn tail and run.
The boneheaded ones lunge into a fight, clawing and kicking, and they get torn up for their efforts and often contract fatal diseases. There are damn few game programmers with the good sense that most cats have. Instead, they arch their backs and fluff their tails and spit acronyms at each other like tomcats. This is bad thinking. You can't learn if you don't recognize your own ignorance.