I was a little sloppy. But the difference between software engineering and building bridges is that absolutes in software engineering are automated away. If the

I was a little sloppy. But the difference between software engineering and building bridges is that absolutes in software engineering are automated away. If there is an always correct way to do something, then the hardware/software always does it that way and we don't expose a choice to the software engineer. When a choice is exposed to the software engineer it is because there is a trade-off. In contrast, when making concrete, there are valid and invalid ratios of water/cement/etc. You have to memorize (or lookup) the correct ratios. Building a bridge is filled with things you have to look up or just compute from basic parameters. Of course there are engineering trade-offs in building a bridge. But there are also many "just follow the algorithm" procedures. In software engineering, it's all trade-offs! Almost by definition, if there is a choice, it's a trade-off that requires human judgement, otherwise, the choice would be made for you by the computer.