Yep, though it becomes less surprising when you consider that if we didn't have any reason to attack hard problems, we wouldn't need a heuristic to tell us not to. We don't need a heuristic to remind us to not eat sand.

Programming, engineering, visual art, music, writing, it's all similar. You do a lot of studies where you capture things in intricate and intimate detail, but when you go to make a product for a purpose, that history of studying tells you what to leave out to build a harmonious and compelling system.

Sculpture is probably a good metaphor for it.

Something in my brain really wants me to bring up Sturgeon's Law here, so there it is :)