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Eh, for the majority of cases, software engineering is more like plumbing than like R&D. There are exceptions, like building a new DB, or similar. But if the tools you need to solve the problem are postgres + Django + react, there shouldn't really be that much hidden complexity for you to uncover.

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So the domain model has already been made explicit and is implemented for you? All the design choices have been removed from you? You don’t have to do any actual software engineering - just extending business logic? That’s nice.

Your trivialization of the complexity is laughable.

The tools are "standard". The data models aren’t.

It's like plumbing alright. With random, unknown substances in the pipes.

Plumbers don't get to decide how the pipes were laid out in the houses they come and work in, either - technically those are unknowns that could throw off a job. Doesn't mean it would be professional of them to insinuate that the variation in each individual building means they can't give a good faith estimate for a job.

It means exactly that.

Software industry estimates are way off the mark compared to plumbing industry estimates.

People who don’t like this fact refuse to understand why software isn’t like plumbing.

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