The first law already gives a good reason why software "engineering" is rarely actually engineering.
Oh god it can be worse when the suits try to measure everything. Some things are measurable and others are taste / gut and that is OK.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
11–20 of 114 posts
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#12> The biggest commercial success is not the best technical design: Nokia N95 versus the first generation iPhone
That’s not a good example. Neither is Beta vs VHS. The most they illustrate is a different law I am coining right here:
Canyon’s Law of Design Optimization: you will inevitably choose to optimize for different metrics than your customers would wish. Don’t try to convince them they are wrong.
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#13Law 20 seems to express the state of most startups these days: > "A bad design with a good presentation is doomed eventually. A good design with a bad presentation is doomed immediately."
That's what happens when the likely success scenario is selling out to an existing company rather than growing to be a genuinely large and long lived company.
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#14> Bhargava’s Law: Only 1 out of 10 research ideas make it into industrial practice It's a nice reflection, but what is the origin of this? Can't find another reference to this "law" online.
Not all laws are hard science laws in the sense of the second law of thermodynamics; they are, however, good approximations based on experience and, in the right context, make a bit more sense.
Notes from the original author:
> I've been involved in spacecraft and space systems design and development for my entire career, including teaching the senior-level capstone spacecraft design course, for ten years at MIT and now at the University of Maryland for more than a decade. These are some bits of wisdom that I have gleaned during that time, some by picking up on the experience of others, but mostly by screwing up myself. I originally wrote these up and handed them out to my senior design class, as a strong hint on how best to survive my design experience. Months later, I get a phone call from a friend in California complimenting me on the Laws, which he saw on a "joke-of-the-day" listserve. Since then, I'm aware of half a dozen sites around the world that present various editions of the Laws, and even one site which has converted them to the Laws of Certified Public Accounting. (Don't ask...) Anyone is welcome to link to these, use them, post them, send me suggestions of additional laws, but I do maintain that this is the canonical set of Akin's Laws...
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#15Law 20 seems to express the state of most startups these days: > "A bad design with a good presentation is doomed eventually. A good design with a bad presentation is doomed immediately."
Hiring salesmen to talk to other salesmen is always the sleaziest part of doing anything productive. You could say the same thing about opening a restaurant.
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#16Law 20 seems to express the state of most startups these days: > "A bad design with a good presentation is doomed eventually. A good design with a bad presentation is doomed immediately."
I'd add to that: If you recognize a good design presented poorly, be the one to stand up and present it well, otherwise you will be stuck with the bad one.
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#17> Quality thinking is more important in this profession than fast thinking.
Feels true, particularly in an era where LLMs make fast thinking cheap.
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#18> The schedule you develop will seem like a complete work of fiction up until the time your customer fires you for not meeting it. (Law 23)
So will Musk finally be fired in 2026?
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#19> The biggest commercial success is not the best technical design: Nokia N95 versus the first generation iPhone That’s not a good example. Neither is Beta vs VHS. The most they illustrate is a different law I am coining right here: Canyon’s Law of Design Optimization: you will inevitably choose to optimize for different metrics than your customers would wish. Don’t try to convince them they are wrong.
I had to look up the N95. Yeah, Wikipedia goes to pains to rattle off things that made it better than the iPhone, but then I looked at a photo of the device and it was clear why the iPhone "won".
Re: Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]
#20The first law already gives a good reason why software "engineering" is rarely actually engineering.
Agreed (unfortunately). It's also a good reminder IMHO to think and do engineering so we can one day be worthy of the title. Be the change you wish to see in the world. :)