I love Wil’s writing and his perspective. His analogy goes far beyond just software development. For example, it goes for writing and publishing a website as well…
The mining equivalent in Wil’s analogy would be (ironically) an obnoxious content farm. One which scrapes from other sites, writes as many posts as possible, uses egregious headlines, and all for the sake of maximizing page views to get more revenue from their punch-the-monkey ads.
The farming equivalent in Wil’s analogy would be thoughtful, intentional writing done by people who care about their topic, their craft, and the time and attention of their readership.