/via http://mibt.edu.au/certificate-iii-in-concreting-cpc30313/ You’ve heard of “ ”, right? No, I’m not referring to the verbing of the noun “concrete”, I’m actually referring to . It’s a term of art, referring to getting the concrete , as quickly and , to ensure that , and that . concreting the construction process around laying concrete as close as possible to its final position as efficiently as feasible it can be fully compacted there is no segregation The thing about concreting is, . You don’t just wake up one day, and say to yourself “yeah, I think I’m gonna pour foundations”, and start doing it. More importantly, even if you to start doing it, nobody in their right mind would (or should!) actually hire you to actually do it. Most importantly of all, if you’ve come up with (what you believe is!) a new and improved way to pour concrete, . And no, this isn’t about the Man keeping you down — it’s about asymmetric risk. The downside risk to going with something unproven (the overpass collapsed killing XXX people) is way, higher than the upside reward. it’s Engineering were the burden of proof is on you to show that it works way /via https://xpressreo.com.au/ All that said, experience plays a part in concreting too! Consider the — that latticework of bars that concrete gets poured around. The steel is all tied together and positioned with tie wires and plastic supports, which hold things in place. However, when the concrete is getting poured and vibrated and tamped and whatnot, every now and then some of these ties will snap, and one of the bars will pop up insouciantly mocking everyone with it’s gesture of freedom. huge placement of reinforcement steel should The problem is, you can’t exactly remove the concrete, find the broken tie(s), and reattach stuff — the engineer on site typically has to make a judgement call, and figure out where to attach the loose bar. Sometimes it’s an easy call (“ ”), and sometimes, not so much (“ ”) obviously the one over here! whyTF is there even a free bar in this location? And that’s where experience comes in — the more jobs the engineer has worked on, and the more teams they have worked with, the more likely it is that they can figure out the correct patch. Which can be the difference between a successful setup, and one which needs to be dismantled and redone in the future. Aaaaaaand, see what I just did there in the last paragraph? Notice how this applies exactly as much to deploying software systems successfully as it does to concreting?That, my friends, is the difference between Software and Software , the latter being the domain of who are constantly asserting their Dunning-Kruger infused superiority in firm defiance of objective reality. Engineering “Engineering” #CowboyDevelopers /via https://consolia-comic.com/comics/house The presumption in most (all?) other forms of Engineering is that you only get to be one after you’ve jumped through a certain amount of formal hoops. The hoops might be from M.I.T., or from the University of Phoenix — it doesn’t particularly matter, as long as the institution is accre , and so forth.With Software, OTOH, the existing ethos is an all too frequent distrust of authority. The Silicon Valley mythos — — is way too deeply embedded in our society, and fuses with the as well as #TechBro culture in an unholy trinity of disfunctionality. dited, the certification is legit scrappy startup bootstraps it’s way to success Hero’s Journey It’s a lot easier to get hired for coding excellence (“ ”) than for engineering training (“ ”). Once hired, odds are that the n00b goes through training which might involve just , or if they’re lucky, they get paired with somebody senior to learn from. Even if they’re lucky though, the next hire may not be so. And even if are lucky too, they’re paired with a senior developer, and the skills, tooling, and experience that each ends up with will be different. And even doesn’t begin to touch upon human biases (“ ”), situational differences, and so forth.In short, . We may think it is, or pretend that it is, but it really isn’t. look what I can make python do! I understand formal methods, but nobody gives a shit throwing them in the deep end they different that yes Toto, there may be differences in the way people are treated based on gender… this is not an apprenticeship We need to get a lot more serious about Software , and treat it as an actual field, not one that we all get to wing it on. More to the point, we need to pay attention to the folks that already do so, and start learning from them. Given the already huge, and still increasing, importance of software in our lives, our futures depend on it! Engineering ( This article also appears on my blog )

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Software Engineering vs Software “Engineering”

Too Long; Didn't Read

Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya

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Software Engineering vs Software “Engineering”

Too Long; Didn't Read

Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

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