Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Wikipedia defines engineering as:
Engineering is the application of scientific and technical knowledge to solve human problems. Engineers use imagination, judgement and reasoning to apply science, technology, mathematics, and practical experience. The result is the design, production, and operation of useful objects or processes.
I think this is a great definition as it doesn't dig into the specifics of implementation but rather focuses on the what, why and desired outcomes. As we look into the engineering discipline we find that a heavy dose of imagination and creativitiy is required to come up with quality solutions to technology problems.

One of the items that this definition brings up is intuitive problem solving. This is the idea that each individual will have a set of experiences that they apply to intuitively understand and resolve a problem. I see this sort of problem solving regularly within our my own teams. As we dig into a solution, individuals raise questions like "what happens when one of the nodes goes down, sure the solution will fail over but can the remaining node handle the reconnect traffic?" What this usually means is that they have successfully broken that paticular item in the past and bear the scars to prove it. Technology Scars = Better Intuitive Problem Solving. So then the question becomes what can we codify to accelerate that experiential learning curve for other people?

One interesting thing I have observed is that many brilliant technologists that I have run into have had a background in music. It's almost as if having played an instrument opened up certain portions of the creative brain and enabled them to think differently about problems. Your brain is like a muscle after all and if you don't excercise it it will atrophy. Creativity in concert with logical problem solving seems to be key to approaching any complex problem. If I can divide a problem in half, determine the side with the issue and then devide the identified half in half and do it again I will eventually find the source. What I think this means is that good engineers need to have a balance of left and right brain.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Welcome to my little corner of the Internet. Where I can conjecture and cajole and care not a wit if anyone else reads, feels or deals well with anything I say. Ain't the Internet cool.

Just to set expectations (other than my own) I will blog about
  • technology stuff - I am a geek... I like to think of myself as a high end geek... but that's also sort of like saying I am white trash with money
  • Scotch - It could be that the tech sector has driven this desire to drink into me, but either way it's something I enjoy
  • Agile stuff - Sort of related to the technology stuff but a bit more on the fluffy side
  • Miscellaneous - whatever doesn't fall into the above categories... I refuse to contain myself.. it is my corner of the Internet after all... here I am LORD OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE
  • Meaningless information - I am frequently told I am a wealth of meaningless information as I read near constantly, remember random (importance debatable) items (though names elude me) and otherwise chase bunny trails of conversations (I have been accused of maintaining 2-4 streams of thought conversations at time with a single person... apparently not everyone enjoys this :) )

Anyway, stay or run screaming at this point this post is done.