Software Development is a Creative Skill, Building Houses is a Technical One

Brad Wilson mentioned on the TDD mailing list (yes, those were a thing back in the day!) that the waste and inefficiency within the software industry was akin to the house building industry. I’m sure in some respects he is right, but in a more fundamental way I disagree.

An average layman off the street hiring a builder can ask them to build a wall. The average layman can see if the wall isn’t straight, the average layman can see when bricks are not aligned, they can see when a house is built to a…