[0xbadcafebee]

If I ask you to build a shelter (out of wood, metal, whatever), and you go ahead and build "something", how do you know the thing is going to survive the wind, snow, earthquakes? You wouldn't know - unless someone has done the calculations, based on certain specific parts, put together in certain ways, that are tested to resist specific forces applied in specific ways. This is the science part of engineering. It ensures that you can build 20,000 houses the same basic way (in one specific area) and not have them randomly fall apart. Yet the people building those houses have no idea of the maths involved. They are just following an approved formula, with approved parts.

We don't have that for software. But if we did, a lot fewer of our buildings would fall down. And it would actually be easier and faster to build the software, because nobody would have to sit there and wonder how to put it together, or with what parts. Just follow the plan.