Agreed. This attitude is why software has such a bad reputation. People are in such need for software, that they will tolerate horribly unreliable software if it happens to sort of solve their problems. Good software is rarely available, so people just expect it to be bad.
If people started demanding software as reliable as the things produced by other engineering professions (buildings that don't collapse, etc.), then being a good programmer would be strictly tied to making money. But right now, the code is the least important part of software companies. The idea and the marketing is significantly more important. (Hello, Twitter.)
Also, people are quick to associate personal gain with the economic value of a program. The Facebook founders may be rich, but automatic trading systems handle a lot more money (even though the programmers didn't necessarily get rich writing it). Facebook can have as many bugs as it wants, and they will be fine. An automatic trading system can ... cause problems ... if it is not bug-free (and well-written, or written by good developers). But you never hear about that sort of thing from these people; only how their blog makes $10/day and that how they are a genius and visionary for doing that.
If people started demanding software as reliable as the things produced by other engineering professions (buildings that don't collapse, etc.), then being a good programmer would be strictly tied to making money. But right now, the code is the least important part of software companies. The idea and the marketing is significantly more important. (Hello, Twitter.)
Also, people are quick to associate personal gain with the economic value of a program. The Facebook founders may be rich, but automatic trading systems handle a lot more money (even though the programmers didn't necessarily get rich writing it). Facebook can have as many bugs as it wants, and they will be fine. An automatic trading system can ... cause problems ... if it is not bug-free (and well-written, or written by good developers). But you never hear about that sort of thing from these people; only how their blog makes $10/day and that how they are a genius and visionary for doing that.