This is simply untrue. There _are_ people who want to be software engineers -- I'm one of them! The field is still young, but there are those of us who strive

This is simply untrue. There _are_ people who want to be software engineers -- I'm one of them! The field is still young, but there are those of us who strive to apply the rigour seen in other engineering disciplines to the work in which we engage today. We seek to balance competing demands of quality, features, and schedule. Though I get to produce programs when it makes sense, I spend a lot more time writing prose and communicating with others inside and outside the immediate engineering team in which I work. I also spend a lot of time chasing down problems in existing software; each new failure provides an opportunity to improve our overall practice. Mistakes can and will always happen; negligence must not. To suggest that there isn't, or cannot be software engineering is maddeningly self-defeating.