I think the source of your frustration here is idealism. You're assuming, first of all, that things should be "better" and second of all that things could be be

I think the source of your frustration here is idealism. You're assuming, first of all, that things should be "better" and second of all that things could be better. Software and technology in general is like a gigantic thriving petri dish. The natural world is terribly inefficient, too (I need how many sperm to germinate one lousy egg?!) The simple fact is that I'm able to read your rant, think about it and reply whilst sitting in a cafe on a mobile phone. That is awesome progress. The problems we deal with as engineers are the reason we get paid to do it. Compare this to the practice of music: the art is in the beauty of the song. The engineering is in getting 5 stoners on stage simultaneously and managing to get paid by the ephemeral promoter at the end of it. I'd rather wrangle with a broken FreeBSD port dependency in the comfort of my office listening to music of my choosing (streamed over the internet, and made by people using computers) than starve because of crop failure. In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double.