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Comment by kgwxd

8 hours ago

Very, very, very little of real-world software dev is anything close to "engineering".

Take any long-running successful project, and you’ll find that they practice an engineering-like discipline to make it sustainable.

  • And the difference will be as stark as steak is from stew. To be clear, “engineering-like” is not “engineering”.

    • I worked on projects with EEs and MEs for years. Were they not doing "engineering" because they built custom PCBs and the devices they go inside, rather than drawing the wiring plans or HVAC plans for a construction project? Most of them didn't even have a PE.

    • I’ve studied Electronic Engineering (and interacted with the Civil Engineering classes). And the main difference is that physical laws are inflexible and failure cases may result in deaths, maiming, and material damages. Software constraints are more forgiving in most cases. But that does not means a total lack of discipline has no negative impact. Au contraire, an engineering mindset greatly improves the chances of successfully delivering a project.

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