Compared to other technical and scientific efforts, programming is still in its infancy. It has a long way to go before it is as refined and disciplined as oth

Compared to other technical and scientific efforts, programming is still in its infancy. It has a long way to go before it is as refined and disciplined as other occupations. We are getting there slowly, but it's still the wild west. Where else could you find a college dropout working alongside somebody with a PhD? I've never seen a hospital where somebody with only a highschool education and good scalpel skills was allowed to perform life-or-death surgery. But in the world of software, we routinely employ trial-and-error in trying to put the right person into the right job. And it's tough when the nature of those people and the nature of those jobs changes so rapidly. It's definitely an interesting time to be alive. When I tell my grandchildren about how we did software 'engineering' nowadays, I expect them to laugh like we do when we hear about doctors who used leeches and magnets to cure diseases.