• Hugin@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    16 days ago

    The secret to good engineering is to know when 1+1 should be 3 and when it should be 1.

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      16 days ago

      Sometimes 1+1 is 2, like when you’re counting stuff.

      Sometimes 1+1 is 1, like when you just need a Boolean indicator of whether something is true. Pressing the elevator button multiple times should behave the same way as pressing the elevator button once. Planning out a delivery route requires a stop at every place with at least one item to be delivered, but the route itself doesn’t change when a second or third item is added to that stop.

      Sometimes 1+1 is 0, like when dealing with certain types of rotations, toggle switches, etc. Doing a 180° rotation twice is the same as doing it zero times. Same with doing a reflection transformation twice.

      A good engineer understands the scope of what they’re doing, and its limits.