Spot on. The comparison between a skilled software engineer and a skilled assembly line worker is a flawed one. The game of the assembly line worker is mass pr

Spot on. The comparison between a skilled software engineer and a skilled assembly line worker is a flawed one. The game of the assembly line worker is mass production; the impact of their skill is limited to a subset of all units and their contribution to each unit is also limited. A software engineer is more like a civil engineer or a surgeon. Their work affects the entirety of whatever they're working on at a foundational level. The value of the unit they work on is extremely high. Also, a software engineer doesn't assemble things; they plan and design things. Their impact outlasts their tenure by many years. Just like a surgeon's impact extends far beyond the operating table. Once the software engineer has quit the company, the code which they wrote is still crunching numbers and still earning income for their ex-employers while everybody sleeps. It's not just their code which lasts, it's the entire philosophy which they breathed into the product and their team which lasts as well.