Are all testers idiots? No, surely not. QA is important, and many testers are very intelligent.

That said -- and maybe this is my programmer-bias speaking -- but I can't help but have more respect for someone who creates something new, as opposed to someone who merely verifies that something someone else built satisfies its specification.

creating ways to break stuff is a creative, inventive process. and doing it well requires heavy automation including skillful programming.

Interesting article, even if some of it reads like wishful thinking. In most company hierarchies QA ranks pretty much near the bottom, somewhere between development and support.

In my (limited) experience, those who are good at testing also tend to hate doing it, while those who enjoy it tend to be mediocre (the third category being those who both hate testing and are bad at it). A good tester who enjoys testing seems to be a lot harder to find than a good programmer who enjoys programming, and chances are the pay is lower.

Much as I like the idea, and feel it should be introduced, in 10 years I've never encountered a tester who could code, let alone one who does.