[bluGill]

For problems that can be solved with only a small amount of simple code that is true. However software can become very complex and the larger/more complex the problem is the more important software developers are. It quickly becomes easier to teach software developers enough of your domain than to teach domain experts software.

In a complex project the hard parts about software are harder than the hard parts about the domain.

I've seen the type of code electrical engineers write (at least as hard a domain as software). They can write code, but it isn't good.

[scottyah]

That's true both ways though: if a theoretical physicist wants to display a model for a new theorem, it'd be probably easier for them to learn some python or js than for a software engineer to understand the theorems.

[thwarted]

If this is the case is discoverable, for at least one direction. Reproducability is known to be a problem in some of the sciences, for various reasons. Find a paper that includes its data and software/methodology used for analysis, and try to get it running and producing the same results. Evaluate the included software/methodology on whatever software quality standards you feel are necessary or appropriate.

[grvdrm]

Hard disagree with hard parts of software are harder than domain. I don’t know your story, skills, or domain. But this doesn’t match my experience and others around me at all.

[tecoholic]

Maybe you and others around you are all in some form of engineering capacity? Because I have seen software everywhere from coffee shops, bicycle repairs, to K12 education - all of whom would hard disagree with you.

[Lutger]

Really depends on the domain. I've been in jobs where the domain was much harder than my job as a software engineer, but I've also been in jobs where I quickly got to understand the domain better than the domain experts, or at least parts of it. I believe this is not because I'm smart (I'm not), but because software engineering requires precise requirements, which requires unrelenting questioning and attention to details.

The ability to acquire domain knowledge quickly however, isn't exactly the same as the ability to develop complex software.