I agree with Kragen here. I see what you're saying, but from my perspective as a person who can build both software and stairs, they aren't in the same ballpark

I agree with Kragen here. I see what you're saying, but from my perspective as a person who can build both software and stairs, they aren't in the same ballpark. Sure a CPU is still executing instructions somewhere deep down the stack, but the semantics and concepts I am working with to make a control appear on the screen and then do something are wildly different over time in comparison to stairs. Take a time traveling web programmer from 1995 and ask him to look at some modern web app code. He'll be completely lost for quite a while. Take a time traveling carpenter from 1900 and have him look at some residential stairs built in 2019. His comments might include "why is this lumber so thin?" and he'd probably have opinions on the newer materials (mostly positive, not always) but he would be not at all confused. I think it would be fair to argue that a modern web app (big, complex system) is not comparable to stairs (simple, subpart of a system), but I think you can extend the analogy a lot. If that 1900s carpenter saw a modern commercial construction project he'd be a little more out of his element, but only because the materials we use are different and it would include stuff like HVAC. Fundamentally though he could easily see "oh, that span is longer than I would have made because they have stronger materials than I had." I can't think of any particularly confusing aspect of modern construction because the physics never change.