Software Engineering vs. Computer Science
In Steve McConnell’s draft of the second edition of After the Gold Rush, I found the following quote of Fred Brooks:
A scientist builds in order to learn; an engineer learns in order to build.
I find this to be a bit strange: sure, a scientist’s motivation is to learn, but an engineer has to learn in order to build. Therefore, learning is of high priority to the engineer as well, so I wonder what the point is with the statement is.
I’ll have to look up the context; perhaps it’s from The Mythical Man-Month. The quote is found in the chapter “Software Engineering, Not Computer Science” (PDF).