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To make the comparison fair, in that world civil engineers would also have the ability to change the laws of physics.

And the bridge collapsing would usually not kill people but strip all their clothes.

Also you can start a bridge in your garage.

The clients also usually don't want to pay for a stable safe bridge because the collapsing one is good enough.

If only building a bridge in your garage could make you a billionaire. People would build bridges like crazy.

Or you can just compare them to software engineers that work on critical software like launch systems and nuclear reactors.

Software can be just as reliable when there is a need for it. Thing is, 99% of the time you don't need those extra 9s.

Yeah, that’s a very good point! I imagine if civil engineers could change physics, they’d lockdown what you’re allowed to change for critical systems. And like you said, systems that don’t need the 9s can experiment and learn.

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