I think the difference in software engineering is that the cost and time of digging a tunnel is almost zero. When you write code that "digs a tunnel", writing t

I think the difference in software engineering is that the cost and time of digging a tunnel is almost zero. When you write code that "digs a tunnel", writing the design and code are the hard part, distributing the compiled code is usually predictable and simple. So I think software engineering is closer to the planning phase in civil engineering, where you need to go research the mountain, plan multiple routes, deal with regulation, etc. I bet it is also hard to estimate in civil engineering how long it's going to take to complete the plan to build a tunnel.