I wish we could find a way to make non-programmers understand this. Just because programming doesn't involve moving lots of heavy stuff and putting it together

I wish we could find a way to make non-programmers understand this. Just because programming doesn't involve moving lots of heavy stuff and putting it together physically, doesn't mean that there are no rules about how software needs to be built. People tend to focus on the happy fact that you actually can change your fundamental assumptions in software without loud, ugly demolition sounds, but they tend to stay blind to the fact that it still involves a lot of work. It's partly our fault, too. We're the ones who have been promising that "this time it'll all work out with this fancy new methodology we've discovered". I've seen a lot of people assume that "agile" means "clients can change their mind as often as they want and we'll take it in stride" and that we'll do so at zero cost.