The Hard Thing About Software Development
I agree completely. Rarely the hard problems in coding are thinking of a clever algorithm, or solving a particularly nasty scaling problem. Usually I&#x27;ve struggled the most with understanding and building what the customer needs. A spec can be interpreted many different ways and will always have to be polished after its completed. Someone who doesn&#x27;t know what the customer expects will almost certainly create an implementation that has these micro problems that make the product miss it&#x27;s mark.<p>It makes me think that we&#x27;re training the wrong people in college by making CS a very difficult, math heavy field which often causes the more human skilled people to drop out. Programming doesn&#x27;t have to be anymore math heavy than building a house yet we force undergrads to implement algorithms on paper? The amount of wasted potential talent due to college is staggering.