In defense of these topics:

I think that at some point we all wind up trying to rationalize our existence to the people who write the checks (among others). If we're not rationlizing our existense, we're certainly trying to provide explanations as to why certain dollar amounts are associated with our work and why certain levels of quality are worth those amounts. Having a variety of tools to provide such explanations may be as valuable as having a variety of tools to manage a database. Analogies hit home many times when facts don't.

OK - today's article:

The lawyer analogy is a good one, albeit limited. Whereas a good number of people have been involved in a building project of some kind (at least watching), much fewer understand the business of legal documents. Just the thought that we give some requirements to a lawyer and he comes back with a document that does the job even though we don't understand it may work for some. On the other hand, most people don't like lawyers, so it may not be a good idea to associate ourselves with them (my apologies if anyone out there is a lawyer as well as a programmer). Carpenters and builders are a much friendlier lot.