This little story taught me so much about programming I had forgotten! Great job!
the lil' printf seems like a lil' snarky s---.
I'm somewhat reminded of "learn programming" chatrooms, where a majority of discussions take the form of "how would I do X" "don't do X". Then that is the end of it.
The person's problem stays unsolved, the answerer gets the satisfaction of putting someone down, good times.
Very well written. It reminded me of the writing style of Paulo Coelho, though I am not his big fan. But this article/story I like.