A counterpoint: I write algorithms. I don't have customers that come to me saying, "I want an external sorting algorithm that is tuned to SSDs and APU's;" rat

A counterpoint: I write algorithms. I don't have customers that come to me saying, "I want an external sorting algorithm that is tuned to SSDs and APU's;" rather, I take an existing question or open problem, mull it over, arrive at another question, find a few answers along the way, and eventually I find a way to map the math to the metal. It's bottom up, usually, and generally, rather than composing something deeply personal, I eliminate touches I identify as personal until there's nothing of me left in the algorithm. So what I find illuminating about this post is not that most software is unlike building bridges, but that what I do is like building bridges. See also, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3575449 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3575449