Just one more reason I don't take the "engineering" part of "software engineering" seriously. Hardly surprising given the admiration of tinkering and hacking that runs through the industry.
modern software spans the globe, often communicating with 3rd party systems, operates 24/7/365, and is often at the whims of deadlines. its some of the most technically challenging endeavors in existence.
its not really surprising how you'd end up in these situations.
that being said. rate limits and error handling people. jesus. =)
The 19th century is full of “real engineering” that is frankly clown shoes stuff. Stories about how early truss bridges were designed makes modern software engineering seem quite orderly by comparison.
I've always been amused at this comparison. You're not wrong. We wouldn't tolerate or excuse a group of people attempting engineering based on 19th century practices. Why should we excuse software engineers (if, indeed, their goal is to be "engineers" in any meaningful sense) for not building on the last two centuries of engineering knowledge?
Because software engineering is not the same as mechanical engineering. We’ve tried to apply mechanical engineering principles to software projects; it didn’t work.
