Thread by @patio11

Every time I talk to physical product people I want to shudder and withdraw myself into the comforting embrace of a software business, which has plenty of problems without the eldritch horrors that they have to deal with.

Here let me fictionalize some stories for you.

"So we made a very expensive high tech thing. It took two years. We're going to slip schedule by 6 weeks."
"Oh hardware problems?"
"The packaging doesn't fit."
"The what."
"The thing didn't fit in the plastic for its box."
"What."

"There was an error at the custom plastic packaging factory. Somebody measured wrong."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. So we have to retool."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. Customers are at their wits end and I can't tell them 'Sorry it's the 5 cent thing your $200 device sits in.'"

Or here's a fun variant.

"We made a thing that runs software. Wires are involved. Also, plastic."
"That is true of a lot of things that run software."
"Except this one is not made by Apple it is made by us."
"OK."
"Physics is a thing."
"Oh I do not like where this is going."

"And when wires carry a current..."
"STOP STOP STOP."
"... the plastic heats up..."
"STOP STOP STOP!"
"... and nobody QAed the thing in continuous heavy use for a week because who does that in QA..."
"STOP STOP STOP STOP."
"... and then when it went to the certification lab..."