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Re: Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence ...

• From: David Lee <dlee@calldei.com>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
• Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:04:47 -0600

I would disagree.
I try to treat my software creations as art as well as science.
Same with much on engineering. Architecture, design, human interfaces.
Much is art in the literal sense. Backed by but not solely science.
Science is interested in fact or truth.
Engineering is interested in things that work well.
For me, the expression (art) is important and working well is more important regardless of if I can support it with a scientific basis.   If I can get both great, but given a trade off of theoretically sound and actually works, I'll pick that which works.  Theory be damned.

As one with a hard science educational background I Agee "science is good"
But something that actually works is better.
And if that can be expressed with elegance and beauty it is transcendent ..




Sent from my iPad (excuse the terseness) 
David A Lee
dlee@calldei.com


On Dec 29, 2011, at 1:18 PM, "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org> wrote:

> 
>> I'd suggest software design is closer to engineering than science
> 
> But isn't the goal of every engineer to move steadily away from engineering-as-an-art to engineering-as-a science? 
> 
> Stated differently, shouldn't we endeavor to approach engineering problems as scientists?
> 
> /Roger 
> 
> P.S. Fascinating discussion!
> 
> 
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• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence ... [Was: Designing an experiment to gather evidence on approaches to designing web services]
    • From: "Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>

• References:
  • Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence ... [Was:Designing an experiment to gather evidence on approaches to designing webservices]
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>