> Why can’t people productively and easily make their own software?
The problem is that software does not understand tacit knowledge, only explicit knowledge. Many people are good at things on an intuitive level, but aren't able to explain clearly and unambiguously and comprehensively why they do those things. Structuring thoughts and processes like this is an important (and quite rare) skill in itself.
Secondly, "tech" is not a completely homogenous or bland medium, certain things are simply much easier to do than others. It's much easier for humans to drive cars, even with an error rate, than for computers. While it's much easier for computers to do arithmetic. The implication of this is that it's often much better to change your process - or possibly replace your entire business - than to take the current one and freeze it into a computer.
That's the problem with a lot of bureaucratic efforts. Often the "process" doesn't actually work as written down, and relies on a lot of slack and human judgement by individual low-status people who aren't included in the software development process. So freezing the process in software, even if done exactly to spec, doesn't work.
See also "Seeing like a State"; the process of making people and processes 'legible' to a bureaucratic system changes them, as does computerising them.
Third related problem is demarcation: even if individuals want to automate their workflow, they're still part of an organisation which would prefer they stay in their lane. So many "enterprise" disasters are the result of the people making the purchasing decision refusing to work with the actual users.
The problem is that software does not understand tacit knowledge, only explicit knowledge. Many people are good at things on an intuitive level, but aren't able to explain clearly and unambiguously and comprehensively why they do those things. Structuring thoughts and processes like this is an important (and quite rare) skill in itself.
Secondly, "tech" is not a completely homogenous or bland medium, certain things are simply much easier to do than others. It's much easier for humans to drive cars, even with an error rate, than for computers. While it's much easier for computers to do arithmetic. The implication of this is that it's often much better to change your process - or possibly replace your entire business - than to take the current one and freeze it into a computer.
That's the problem with a lot of bureaucratic efforts. Often the "process" doesn't actually work as written down, and relies on a lot of slack and human judgement by individual low-status people who aren't included in the software development process. So freezing the process in software, even if done exactly to spec, doesn't work.
See also "Seeing like a State"; the process of making people and processes 'legible' to a bureaucratic system changes them, as does computerising them.
Third related problem is demarcation: even if individuals want to automate their workflow, they're still part of an organisation which would prefer they stay in their lane. So many "enterprise" disasters are the result of the people making the purchasing decision refusing to work with the actual users.