Greyscale of approach

In Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainance, Pirsig talks about the gulf in approach from engineer to artist. I suspect this would be better expressed as a greyscale, but I guess the absolutes make a better literal device. Let me explore this a little.

Pirsig has it that a strict artist sees only the surface of things whereas a strict engineer or scientist sees only the internal workings. It is preposterous to suggest that only these extremes exist and I feel sure this was never the intention. I said earlier that a greyscale might fit as a better analogy but I have a further refinement to add. Simply that we occupy a continuous space along the line- a band of some personally relevant width. We should perhaps hope to expand our occupation of the scale - in both directions. A scientist should learn to appreciate the beauty of the surface, while an artist should learn to see beyond into the guts of a thing. In my opinion the best scientists and artists seem to occupy huge tracts of this mental landscape.