Re:The Fast Pencil Fallacy in Software Development
by mettamage on Tuesday June 30, 2020 @01:33PM
(#23692580)
I studied psychology and outcompeted 10+ years experienced programmers when I made a greenfield application for a psychologist when I was still studying CS at university.
So in my world of anecdata you're entirely correct on how amazing domain knowledge is. I could help the psychologist with her research and could anticipate a couple of fun requirements (like an ever changing questionnaire :P).
Re:The Fast Pencil Fallacy in Software Development
by Jtsummers on Tuesday June 30, 2020 @02:12PM
(#23692976)
Every young person I've mentored, I've encouraged to get a minor, ideally in a science/engineering discipline or business, but really anything. It broadens your base of knowledge coming out of school so that you can be more effective for yourself and your customers (be that your immediate employers or the ones paying them).
For the same reason as you describe: Most software is meant to solve a specific application. In my current office we have people who are experts in programming but also in orbital mechanics (the math and physics of it all). That makes them invaluable to the customers (who also have experts in orbital mechanics but not in software).
A very few of us do study computers as computers, and they often are held up as the pinnacle of the field. We would rather discover algorithms or write tools for other programmers. But most of us make tools for people, and we can't do that well if we don't know what they need.
One way this shows up is in the way novice programmers fixate on the fastest language or algorithm, because it's a way they can show off their expertise to other programmers rather than a customer. They should be taught from the beginning that their job is to be useful, and it would be easier if they could be taught to be interested in something other than the computer for its own sake.