Someone once said that computer programming is 10% syntax and 90% thinking. Here is Andrej Karpathy with a similar thought, writing on Twitter:
You could see it as there being two modes in creation. Borrowing GAN terminology:
1) generation and
2) discrimination.
e.g. painting – you make a brush stroke (1) and then you look for a while to see if you improved the painting (2). these two stages are interspersed in pretty much all creative work.