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1+1= (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by can@sh.itjust.works to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Hugin@lemmy.world 42 points 7 months 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 37 points 7 months 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.