Instead of talking about computers or games or the internet, or any of those things that people normal fall back on when trying to explain what software engineering/development/programming is; he described the actual purpose. He said described it as :
Automating all the boring jobs, so that everyone can have a better life.Which is a much bigger job than just making websites, games or anything like that.
It reminded me of the SICP lectures, where they broke down the title "Computer Science".
They talked about Geometry, as derived from the Greek for measuring the earth. Modern Geometry has nothing to do with actual measuring of the earth, it's just how the abstract modern geometry started out.
In the same way, Computer Science has nothing to do with computers; That's just how it's starting out.
What Computer Science (Which isn't really a science either, but I'll leave that for a later discussion) is really about is understanding process; thinking about how we do stuff.
This more abstract definition, feeds directly into my uncle's description of the true purpose of software engineering/development and programming.
It has nothing to do with computers, it's about working out how people do things, and automating (simplifying) them.
The upshot is:
- If you don't know how to do it manually, you can't automate it.
- Just because you're using a computer to do it, doesn't mean it's better than doing it manually.
There's been many times when people have shown me software solutions, that don't actually simplify (automate) the process at all. It a few cases, the software was actually more complicated than the manual process.
Those ideas always struck me as stupid, but I couldn't think of why it was fundamentally wrong.
You need to ask yourself, is this actually going to help?
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