Software is still very much a craft, as opposed to an engineering discipline. As such, we each have to learn, over time, how to produce defect-free code. For th

Software is still very much a craft, as opposed to an engineering discipline. As such, we each have to learn, over time, how to produce defect-free code. For the capable, concerned and intelligent developer, this means that each new bug leads to new ways to ensure that such bugs will not happen again in the future. So, no, like life itself, we all make mistakes in our systems. The important thing is that we don't make the same ones over and over again. In software development, that means adjusting our development methology to make such bugs less likely in the future. That is why software development is both the most challenging and most rewarding of careers. Of course, I may be a bit biased ;-) As far as encountering crappy managers, I'll just say that I can count the good managers I've had on one hand and still have a couple of fingers left over. As to your former manager's particular flavor of belligerence, I haven't had that one specifically, but there are very much uglier variants, my friend. My understanding is that one cannot be made a manager unless the person is willing to prioritize money over human beings and it doesn't take a biblical scholar to see how that is causing so many problems in the small and large across the world. In the small, that attitude manifests itself in many ugly personality traits, while being the foundation of the entire structure and intention of the for-profit corporation where the vast majority of us are forced to find our work.