I feel you, and I think we agree, I mean it depends with the intern writing code, because I always ask myself, if this code were illegal who would go to jail to determine ownership, and shucks, I never considered the intern angle :). I don't think I would be culpable there, but i would definitely be at fault if it were authored by ai.

and about my tacit love for software you're right I don't want to write code just for the sake of it, for sure, I want to write code towards a purpose, always with some goal in mind. But I gander, we are all like that, because how much time do we spend planning and deciding before ever putting fingers to the keyboard.

But it does suck sometimes, I'm just trying to find the joy in the new parts, ya know? I want to embrace the new technology, and use it, because the toothpaste is out of the tube, and it can't go back in. Everything else I do or believe stems from that belief.