No Silver Bullet, Duh

Kim was telling me about a book she is reading called "Enough".  She said the answers are more complicated than she thought.  Some of the book's conclusions were challenging her perfect ideal of "organic farming", especially when it comes to the poorest countries.

I said, and added a pause, as if what I was going to say had some deep wisdom, "In software, there's a saying, 'There is no silver bullet'".

She laughed, "Yeah, well everyone, every field says that... there's no silver bullet... ha ha ha... I mean that's a very common saying... ha ha ha... THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET... like I've never heard that... ha ha ha".

The funny thing is, I always thought there were silver bullets (other than Coors Light even).  Examples:

1. Plumbing: $#!+ runs downhill
2. Graphics: Shaders
3. Math: Prove it
4. Business: X% growth
5. Christianity: Love God and your neighbor
6. Dynamics: F=ma
7. Women: Chocolate
8. Painting Cars: Clear coat it
9. Men: Donut
10. Fishing: Know where the fish are at

But software is inextricably, impossibly, horribly impossible.

So my thought for the day is:

If you can do software, you can solve world hunger.

 I bet that's why Bill Gates is doing what he is doing. He must have realized the converse of that thought, that if he can solve world hunger, malaria and disease that maybe his software will work.