Martin Guitars has a range of guitars ranging from ~$1500 to $10,000 in price.
The sound and play-ability on all of them is superb, what differentiates them is the materials and the aesthetic aspects - i.e. fancy inlays and stuff.
Similarly, I imagine you could go see a stone mason and ask for a simple brick wall for 20% the price of an ornate bas-relief facade, which would still be well constructed.
Or ask a blacksmith for a simple sword, rather than one with all sorts of shiny metalwork on the hilt.
Does the corporate luthier fancy working on the simple stuff, or the complex stuff? Neither, because they likely work a single phase of an assembly line instead of finishing an instrument all by themselves. This is where the Martin Guitars analogy breaks down: the guitars are not bespoke products. Pieces of computer software obviously are, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Look at any entrepreneur luthier, however, and the story is very different. All their instruments are unique, and they may work on some complex ones for a long time before they decide it is ”good enough” for their standards of quality.
In the same sense, independent masons and smiths are, of course, more aligned with software engineering than any of their corporate counterparts—if any, because these professions are rather contracting-oriented.
Maybe seeing complexity as inherently problematic is actually a coping strategy employed by software craftspersons who have struggled with corporate demands such as inhuman work allocation and deadlines, internalised those demands as ”the way business OUGHT TO be done” (as if expecting a punishment for doing otherwise), and eventually become grugs who shake their club at anyone who triggers their corporate PTSD.
I really hope the grug meme does not become reality.
I like the analogy of the entrepreneur luthier and more generally the master craftsman. I've had the experience of building software "on the assembly line" and, and also been lucky enough to be paid by the same employer to work in a way that is much closer to the "master craftsman" end of the spectrum. I much prefer the latter.
But it's only in side projects that I really feel I'm able to work as a master craftsman, without the ever-present burden to just ship a pragmatic compromise that delivers value to the business so that I can move on to the next pragmatic compromise. I wonder if this is another reason why, say, doctors working in hospitals will often also have their own private practice — sure, the extra money is nice, but the autonomy and mastery that comes with a side business might be even more important.
How to do that without being disrespectful?
How come programmers accept this kind of disrespect for their craft? Aren’t they supposed to be the masters, the Hattori Hanzos of program code?