What rocket engineering can teach us about software engineering—and work in general

"We're not launching a rocket here" is often said when comparing the complexity of software development to space exploration, but as we saw at the Kennedy Space Center, even rockets require careful planning and documentation to succeed. To apply this to our own work, we can learn from the Apollo program's emphasis on clear goals, pragmatism, and embracing failure. We should focus on solving specific problems rather than vague ones, go with what we know when possible, document everything thoroughly, and test for failure by introducing chaos into our systems. By doing so, we'll build more robust and resilient software that can withstand the inevitable failures and learn from them."