When dealing with complicated systems (PARTICULARLY fragile, over-complicated ones) the engineers are often (unfairly) seen as "brilliant" because they're the o

When dealing with complicated systems (PARTICULARLY fragile, over-complicated ones) the engineers are often (unfairly) seen as "brilliant" because they're the only ones that understand the mess. It's ironic, right? The more fragile and over-complicated the system, the more the engineers who created the mess in the first are considered "brilliant." I've seen this countless times. (In defense of such engineers, it's often not their fault. They built one thing, and then management and business needs dictated a plethora of changes and technical debt against their wishes. I have been one of these engineers on occasion)