I always liked the comparison between software and building construction. I think it's one of the best "real-world" analogies we can use to explain what we do, but there are differences.

I view myself as being somewhere between an engineer and an architect. I like to "think with my hands" so to speak: think up a rough overall design, implement it and then move code around, rewrite parts until it works well and makes sense.

The reason that works well (or at all) in software development is because of a pretty fundamental difference between building construction and software development; there is hardly any difference in software between the design and the product. It's only a matter of abstraction. Any really comprehensive software design is practically code (and you can argue that the reverse is also true). That's also a reason I don't like/believe in "automatic code generation from designs" - if your design is that comprehensive you're still programming, only chances are you're not using the right tools for the job.