My experience suggests that building a software business often involves re-producing time-consuming things that others have built in a simpler way. Oftentimes,

My experience suggests that building a software business often involves re-producing time-consuming things that others have built in a simpler way. Oftentimes, you do less thinking about the problem/solution than writing the code. So, for some software "I write software" can be better than type 1 and type 2. What if that were the case for the majority of software that would make money? However, I propose that this doesn't matter, since another type of engineer is higher than these 3 types. Type 4 - Principal Engineer - I write software and I have Virtue: I get to speak words; maybe you can speak too but I won't listen, but I'll make sure you don't think negatively (enough) of me to try to reduce my Virtue. For example, I'll spend time carefully listening and explain truthfully how things are complicated until our time to chat is up.