SOLID
Mechanical Engineering Vs. Software Engineering
Mike Taulty has an interesting post up titled Why is Deleting Code so Satisfying? where he compares a plumber and a software developer. (Its a very short post, please go read it… I’ll wait).
Now I may have a bit of a unique view on the subject as I’m a developer and my brother is an Mechanical Engineer for Conway & Owen. So please bear with me. Mike’s post asks if a plumber would rip out his work if they found a better way after they already started. The fact that he mentions a plumber, I would speculate, causes most people to think of plumbing a single family home. This type of plumbing is the software development equivalent of FizzBuzz. Which is to say that it takes some skill and understanding to do it correctly but overall its not a difficult problem.