Your experience and mine is why I write "Solving the Software Problem: a Taxonomy of Error":

http://www.warplife.com/jonathan-swift/books/software-proble...

While actual code serves as a good example the problem is far more general. Consider the Apollo I fire: the Astronauts were unable to convince NASA to redesign their capsule's inward-opening door so they had themselves photographed praying over a model of the capsule.

Everyone knows astronauts are brave; those men died for a door hinge.