Skip to content
0:00 / 0:00

#hillelwayne#softwareengineering#traditionalengineering

8LU - Are we *really* engineers? by Hillel Wayne

8th Light Inc.

704 subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 1 person: 1 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Hillel Wayne, formal verification consultant
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

9.1K views6 years ago1 recommendation

Tools and practiceCareers and interviewsCode review and teamworkCareer growth

Hillel Wayne shares insights from interviewing seventeen crossover engineers to compare software development with traditional engineering disciplines.

What makes #softwareengineering different from “traditional” engineering? To find out, Hillel Wayne interviewed 17 “crossovers”: people who have worked professionally as both software and traditional engineers. In aggregate, we learn three things: we are in fact all in the same field, and there’s a lot to learn from each other. --- Hillel Wayne is a formal verification consultant and the author of Practical TLA+. In his free time, he juggles and makes chocolate. He’s legally allowed to deliver babies in Illinois. --- Learn more about 8th Light at 8thlight.com/

Why it's here

1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended as an insightful comparison between software development and traditional engineering, showing they are fundamentally the same field.

exdsqon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why do so few people major in computer science? (2017)”

Absolutely! Some companies are great at this but most (from my experience) use the term but there's 0 'engineering' involved - it's just hacking bits of code together and hoping it lives long enough for a customer to sign off on UAT. There was a good talk on this subject last week - here's the recording if you're interested link to this video

hwayneon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Cold Showers: For when people get too hyped up about things”

I used to think this, and then I interviewed people who did both traditional and software engineering professionally, and now I'm not so sure. I did a first draft of what I learned here: link to this video I'm hoping to have a written version by the end of September.

godelskion Hacker News • Mentions

On “The reality of working in tech: We're not hired to write code (2023)”

I really think you should read Dan's post in full . Because you really did make the error him and Hillel discuss. I think it'll also help interpret my point and the gp to my comment. We're not thinking in a framework where CS and Eng are all that different. Or skip to this part of Hillel's video0 I've been an aerospace engineer. Worked there before coming over to CS. And I can certainty tell you that yes, someone may ask you to split a floor in half. There's nothing really preventing you from doing this. There's buildings with more levels than there are ordered floors. It's a 15 floor building, but you label your floors 1-14. Such an area can be used for things like running conduit or even…

godelskion Hacker News • Mentions

On “The reality of working in tech: We're not hired to write code (2023)”

> and I have experience with construction as well. Just so we're clear, construction isn't engineering0. The difference does matter specifically in what we're talking about. > If your implication was followed in software (i.e. try to predict the future and introduce hidden floors, service floors and such) — and it sometimes is — we really end up with worse, more complex software that has technical debt built in from the start. But again, I think this belies you. Yes, I've made the assumption that you either didn't read Dan's blog in full or listen to Hillel's video, but can you blame me? This sentence is something they both explicitly discuss. You don't have everything figured out in engin…