Every Shop Is Messy

> As long as the public is not aware of how many fires you put out per week – it can be considered a well-oiled development machine.

I get the impression that this is more acceptable in the IT world than other industries, but I say this with zero insight into how it works in those other industries. Would love to hear how this is in e.g. mechanical engineering if folks are willing to share. :)

I also wonder if this is largely an artifact of the costs of bad software being so distributed and often taken for granted. So bad software is just an externality that isn't accounted for.

By the way, I do see a family member of mine who works in development for a traditional car manufacturer now, and has worked for an automotive startup in the past, and the care taken to document and test things is (understandibly) on another level. (certainly doesn't have any "move fast and break things" to it)