> Programming is engineering; it's not something where you throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks and just assume that programming languages, browsers, and

> Programming is engineering; it's not something where you throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks and just assume that programming languages, browsers, and operating systems are made of magical dust. This is the mistake, web/desktop app programming is exactly a place where you throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. It does not matter how great your app is if no one is using it. Conversely if your app is successful you can always pay someone a ludicrous amount of money to fix it, software is nice like that. Databases and operating systems are a completely different beast. In those domains things get so complex that proper engineering is essential and in those areas you also tend to find "better" engineers. But web and desktop applications is like building tool-sheds, engineering rigor is irrelevant. It matters when you build sky scrapers though.