I have a non-combative curiosity about the topic. Question is really for Craigd. But anyone else can answer obviously.
If I buy a shotgun and outsource every aspect of its reconfiguration to my specifications, people would typically say they built it, as in, “I built this gun for shooting clays. Or pigeons, etc.”. And everyone who looked at it would know that the owner probably never touched a file.
And I doubt anyone at their club would say boo about it.
if a person has a new home built, people routinely say they built the house. Very possibly never touching anything heavier than a pencil or pen.
No one goes after them if they say the built their new home. Usually just the opposite, commenting on their good taste, or unique design elements.
If a large national, or even worldwide project has a champion at the highest level within our government, and they participate in the birthing of , a great big thing. Could have been NASA, the Internet, the highway system, nuclear bombs, whatever, is it OK for the person who pushed for that to say they built it? Even if they never touched a shovel?
Does pushing the funding required (essential for it to happen at all, whether we agree on the merits or not) allow the sponsor to say they built anything?
I could easily see John Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Eisenhower, Truman, Kennedy, Rickover, all sitting around a table in the afterlife somewhere talking about what it was they did on this planet during their mortal years, and what constitutes “built” might be a discussion good for 1 million years or so.
I’m just trying to see where the lines are as far as what constitutes built. I’m sure many of you live in a house that you “built”out .
What say ye?
