Your software engineers are concerned with "getting the right answer" and general quality. When you add a new UI you add failure points and lower quality. That's why they are saying that it is not worth it. If you can show a UI design that doesn't lower quality, they will buy-in.

Well - yes. The engineers wouldn't do it for free. The guys supplying the reward are to blame, including the CEO

As part of the contract to clean the towers, the workers must drink some of the water once a week for three months

That's correct. Even in IT most people can't code

I strongly agree with your "no no no". But not your comment that software in not manufacturing (this is an argument for a different time/place). We have known for 50 years that we should design top-down and code/implement bottom up. The salesmen and users don't get this. They tend to be flat-landers not understanding infrastructure and architecture. Of course many don't care. They are sociopaths anyway. Quality is a good thing. Indirectly, it is a measure of simplicity. We should never embrace the ideas of managing complexity (other than getting rid of it).

personally I reserve the word "programming" to describe activities that include if-then-else, do-while, do-until, and sequence. Most business applications do not go beyond the math of general accounting

I just hope they don't evolve to be as big as dogs!

Now I have another reason to go back to Firefox

Maybe the C.S. curriculum is flawed. The once was a business data processing degree. We should find out what information is actually needed to be a successful programmer and designer. Look at the top programmer/designers through history, few if any had C.S. degrees.

Why? You didn't withhold judgment when you decided Snowden was a hero!

The Eskimo Snow idea may or not be true - - but it sure is a fun idea. The whole Whorfian hypothesis has been debunked by a long series of straw men.

What personal cost? - - - Snowden will be running for the Senate in 10 years. He's a narcissist like most other politicians.

When you are older you will change your mind about Snowden. He committed treason. He could have gotten the same effect without the narcissism.

Now we know why SETI has never made contact. Every other civilization came to the same end

Where is the science behind this? I suspect both statements are hogwash