Great comment - I completely agree about REXML. One question for you - what's an example of a http library in another language which you think provides a good API? Personally, I haven't found net/http to be any worse/better when compared to many other standard http libs.
My generation has been described as entitled. Quite frankly, I do feel as if I am owed something, and that society at large has failed to keep its end of the bargain.
This quote also hits the nail on the head for many of the older generations posting here. The fact you feel entitled to anything is the source of much grief. I'm part of your generation, but through the professional experience I've gained in the past 8 years, and having been put in the position of hiring people from both Gen X and Y, I've realized that this entitlement hurts you much more than it helps.
Success is newly defined for each generation. Our job, in wake of this economic disaster, is to find out just how that definition has changed and move forward.
The point being made here is that we are still unable to build programs which interpret language nearly as effectively as the human brain. Our programs still have little skill in determining context in language - which will be an important step in reaching Kurzweillian levels of computing competence.
However, it should be noted that Natural Language Processing and studies in word sense disambiguation have brought us closer, people still cherish the "Dude, where's my flying car" impatience of technology.
Great post - i loved the analogies. I grew up on BBS's and VB. In my 20's, I moved into the wild-wild-web. PHP was my first inkling of becoming a programmer, but I soon learned to appreciate the history - teaching myself C/C++, learning design principles, etc., etc., because I needed to know more about the craft.
Now I've gone 'corporate' and my job entails a lot of what you've described aptly as the new new thing. For me hacking has always been about putting the many pieces together. The challenges, more than ever, are still there - it's the nature of them that have changed. Because of the many levels of abstraction, as you've noted, today's hacker needs a broader view and wider skill-set to find those big, big challenges. That's why I still love what I do.