alt Hacker Newstinkers often what engineering looks like before the org has invented a process around it. Prototyping, debugging, testing, etc are not fake work because they happen quickly.
Compilers do not generate impact by themselves either. Neither do CI, IDEs, frameworks, or cloud infra. They increase the leverage of the person using them.
> Compilers do not generate impact by themselves either
I did not mean to give the impression that Compilers and other key infrastructure are not impactful. I believe these are deeply impactful.