[TeMPOraL]

Huh. I'd go the other way around: if you've found a game-breaking ultimate superpower, of course you're going to use it.

Ability to reason about and optimize systems isn't "the only tool" a conscious programmer has, it's an additional tool they have that most of the population don't. So perhaps "software engineers tend to see themselves as machines" that can be optimized, because they can see it where others can't.

[kubanczyk]

That old saying suggests: be humble. Ultimately we are lazy about how many different worldviews/perspectives we actually use. As compared to how many we think we can use.

Don't think that since you found a good tool, you are a unilateral master of it. Using the tool, any tool, is bilateral relation.