On the Signal vs. Noise blog I just read this nice metaphor of software developers / software engineers being software tailors.
I design, I edit, I think, I review, I suggest, I teach. Some things I mess up, some things I fix up. But what I really do most of the time is trim, tuck, iron, cut, press, and fit. I’m a software tailor. [From I’m a tailor – (37signals)]
I like that picture. The only things missing are the proper tools for doing the job like a tailor.