Software Engineering?

Tom DeMarco is "gradually coming to the conclusion that software engineering is an idea whose time has come and gone." He says so here. He concludes:

Consistency and predictability are still desirable, but they haven’t ever been the most important things. For the past 40 years, for example, we’ve tortured ourselves over our inability to finish a software project on time and on budget. But as I hinted earlier, this never should have been the supreme goal. The more important goal is transformation, creating software that changes the world or that transforms a company or how it does business.

Go out and build great software. You should take pride in doing it well -- so that others can enjoy reading and maintaining your code. But your most important focus should be on building great software for your users. Focus on rocking their world. Change the way they do things, and change it significantly.