The median chip I worked on had more novel design than the P99-novel software project. We were able to set and hit schedules. Ditto for my optics work.
Software isn't really unique (no, not even in the grandiosity of its practitioners).
Inspired by a comment in today's presentation, my new goal is to write a mathematics paper that uses the "Feeling" environment.
(This, in turn, inspired the present document. I decided to do this in a style akin to that of the Devil's Dictionary.)