Software development takes a long time because we write code still. Thats essentially the crux of it. Humans then plan/optimize efforts on the wrong layers, and

Software development takes a long time because we write code still. Thats essentially the crux of it. Humans then plan/optimize efforts on the wrong layers, and underestimate the cost of updating code over time. Surprisingly so at scale. The systems that tend to produce the fastest (that also last) results are the one's that give the developer the most control over the environment to get the task done (LISPs). Or one's that generate code for you, and let you deal with abstract flows as the control unit. We don't really use either of those things in industry... but niche segments do to great success.