[plt-scheme] Perplexed Programmers

Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:
> Your analogy is verbally clever, but I don't think it stands up.  VCs
> are by definition engaging in high-risk activity.  That's the
> (ad)"venture" part.  But one does not think of day-to-day engineering
> activities as being high-risk.  The average manager who comissions an
> engineering artifact -- whether a factory shed, an engine for a plant,
> or a software application -- does not want to feel a frisson of
> excitement and sudder of fear as they do so.  

I agree that they don't want to, and shouldn't have to, but on the 
software side there's still some reason for that fear.  I don't have the 
data to say whether it's better or worse than for other kinds of 
engineering, though.

> By the way, I think there are ways in which software is far ahead of
> the engineering competition.  

Oh sure.  But as long as projects that are perceived as being 
straightforward run into trouble[*], that'll be the thing that 
management will focus on.

Anton

[*] Like payroll systems -- "how hard could it be?"