Somewhere in my vast collection of lapel buttons I have one that says: Nobody can fix the economy. Nobody can be trusted with his finger on the button. Nobody's Perfect. VOTE FOR NOBODY! At times such as these, the sentiment acquires extra resonance.

Chuckle! I think a lot of us do the same, when the occasion arises. I certainly do. Of course, there's no stigma involved in the practice, as long as you remember to test your replacement code thoroughly. Right? Right?

(As it happens, I also do it to my old, already-published fiction...which causes my readers a bit of concern when they discover it! Well, at least with fiction the "debugging" is less onerous.)

Software can be a life career...but you have to accept the price. The price has several components: -- You must become a well-regarded specialist in a sub-discipline of programming that won't be obsoleted by developments. -- You must go to work for a company that needs and respects such specialists. -- You must renounce all hope of ever gaining rank in your employer's Table of Organization. -- You must accept that the stratosphere of salary and perquisites is reserved for managers, directors, and so forth, and is therefore inaccessible to you. My own experience might help to illustrate this. I'm 59. I specialize in real-time simulation, with a "sideline" in the programming of exotic hardware interfaces. My employer, a large defense contractor, has an ongoing need for such specialists; we build the laboratories in which tactical software products are tested. I've been doing what I do for thirty years, and will probably be encouraged to keep doing it until I feel like retiring. I didn't make a conscious decision to adopt this specialty; I "lucked into it" when I was hired by another defense contractor, some thirty years ago. But it suited me, and I decided to stay with it. Though I'm occasionally given "team leader" positions, my name never appears on a managerial chart. That suits me, too. Not everyone can do this, whether for reasons of taste, temperament, or talent. I was told several times over the course of the years that I should expect my trade to pall on me, that I should make provisions for a career shift, and that the real opportunities lie in other fields. But here I am, and I have no regrets. Occupationally, at any rate.