An Introduction to Why IT is Hard

The following is a self-quote from a thread I replied to at Ars Technica:

IT projects deal with complexities far greater in magnitude than other professions. Many managers and executives have no idea how complex things can be and often trivialize IT projects because of it.

The world doesn't yet seem to respect the insurmountable problems and dependencies IT projects face.

We've only had ~50 years of professional history. Architecture has had at least 7000 years. Planes haven't changed much in their use of physics in decades, but computer programs seem to use new languages, libraries, and toolkits every few years.

The absurdly rapid change in the IT world guarantees a rate of failure higher than all other industries.