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I don't like the comparison of software engineering to brain surgery and structural engineering. The biggest difference between the professions is how bad the a
by traes 6y ago
I don't like the comparison of software engineering to brain surgery and structural engineering. The biggest difference between the professions is how bad the average screw up is: most mistakes in software are completely harmless and can be tracked down and fixed in under an hour with little to no consequences. There are obviously exceptions, especially with business or security critical code, but for the most part mistakes are easy to deal with. With surgery or structural engineering, however, once you make a mistake there may be no good way to fix it, possibly resulting in hundreds, thousands, or millions of dollars in losses and/or death. Very few software bugs have the same implications, and this is why there is more general levity.
- AnyTimeTraveler 6y agoWithin my first half year of working in a startup, I got to touch invoicing code and thought I had written tests for every occasion and had removed all bugs. A month after the code went through reviews and more testing, and was put into production. Another month later, more than half a million dollars is missing. After figuring out what went wrong, the issue was quickly fixed and corrected invoices were sent out. My point is: While it's not like brain surgery, in that every mistake is deadly, some mistakes can have devastating consequences.
- traes 6y agoThis is one of the obvious exceptions that I mentioned. Anything to do with money counts as business critical and should be treated like brain surgery.