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Comment by toadi | Hacker News Reader

To be very honest. Software development is NOT rocket science. Writing corporate CRUD code is not that difficult...

Writing a new 3D game engine is off course more daunting but still not rocket science.

One difference software engineering has with aerospace engineering is that the people building the rocket get all the time they need. Since it's rocket science it's pretty much a given that if it's rushed or a PM or CEO puts the pressure on (with people working triple shifts for instance) then things just literally blow up.

In software the coders rarely have the option or will power to push back against unreasonable deadlines and fantasy launch dates. This is especially common in corporate cultures where a chain of command makes those calls and large scale plans are built around dates pulled out of the air. At best the coders are given lose-lose choices: miss the date or ship a broken product.

Sometimes I wish it was rocket science, since rocket science is at least a science. Corporate CRUD application usually have so complex and contradicting and vague requirements that sometimes software developer has to be very at mind-reading just to figure out what he has to do. And that works until the next change request when it all starts again.

I'm sure it's a lot harder than the manager to which I refer could do. In fact - it's a lot harder than many could manage, and whilst not literally as hard as rocket science, it's still a lot harder than some other fields. For example, "management".

You're right, producing a quality, x million line application that's bug free on a deadline is not rocket science; its harder than rocket science.

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