> after some* years of experience, the programmers understand the business just as well as they do. I don't push back on the premise that there are some incred

> after some* years of experience, the programmers understand the business just as well as they do. I don't push back on the premise that there are some incredibly dumb non-engineers. But of all the people I've had to work with, engineers were among the best and the worst. The latter has to do with their dysfunctional level of focus and utter lack of creativity - not just in an artistic way, but also in terms of general imagination. Here's a very common scenario: - non-engineer: let's improve this by 10%. - engineer: that will cost 40%. - non-engineer: I get that. But our current 90% is not competitive. - engineer: but it doesn't make sense to invest 40% to get 10%. That's what separates great engineers from the high-IQ/low-EQ ones: they have taste, imagination, and common sense. Incidentally, the latter group tends to have less self-awareness than the former, and tends to think they are the only non-idiots in the world.