OK, there are not that many old time software engineers, but there should be.
Just finished the book "To Forgive Design" which is about engineering failures (of the bridge, crane, boat kind) and what engineers should and do learn from them. The last chapter is one of the most interesting and also applies to software development.
Engineering is thousands of years old and there are still failures. Software development is only a few decades old and is somewhat still in it's free wheeling days, but generally people don't die when software fails (but there have been some cases).
The bar is so low and the turnover so high that valuable lessons are lost every "software" generation (10-20 years?). Mature (HR speak for expensive) engineers do cost more that less senior developers, but the old mistakes are re-made, the desire to push though a bad design still exists and this costs $$$.
If you have worked in this profession for any length of time you may have seen the same errors, the same poorly placed desires and the wasting of people and resources.
You may also be fortunute enough to also find a company that has learned this lesson and who's productivity is as wonderful as the people it contains.
Engineering is thousands of years old and there are still failures. Software development is only a few decades old and is somewhat still in it's free wheeling days, but generally people don't die when software fails (but there have been some cases).
The bar is so low and the turnover so high that valuable lessons are lost every "software" generation (10-20 years?). Mature (HR speak for expensive) engineers do cost more that less senior developers, but the old mistakes are re-made, the desire to push though a bad design still exists and this costs $$$.
If you have worked in this profession for any length of time you may have seen the same errors, the same poorly placed desires and the wasting of people and resources.
You may also be fortunute enough to also find a company that has learned this lesson and who's productivity is as wonderful as the people it contains.
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