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Science vs. engineering: working in the penumbra of understanding
- highfrequency 3y ago> The engineering method is the use of heuristics to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources...The specialized skill, the defining trait, and the great creativity of engineering all lie in finding the correct strategy to reach a goal—selecting among and combining the heuristics that will lead to a solution, regardless of whether a deep scientific understanding exists. > One obstacle...is the popular notion that science discovers, while engineering applies. But the truth is that engineering often precedes science. > A wonderful feature of engineering by evolution is that solutions come first; an understanding of the solutions may or may not come later. > The hallmark of good engineering, after all, is often its invisibility: the public simply takes for granted that airplanes fly, furnaces and computer networks work, vaccines are safe, and buildings stay up.