> Truth be told, outside of a few life-support-critical applications, most design is done by trial and error. Very little real engineering gets done.
I think people don't even realise when all that extensive math they studied is even helping them. They may have forgotten or not used the specifics in real life, but if they originally understood it well then they probably gained an important subconscious intuition that shapes, optimises and/or narrows that design trial and error. And the best engineers have a great subconscious intuition for finding solutions.
Note: I studied Civil Engineering, so my math background was nearly all Trig and Calculus rather than the Discreet Math, Logic or Number Theory etc that a Computer Science degree might entail. I've forgotten nearly all of it and never really used it IRL, but I can still appreciate having a 'feel' for relationships between changing quantities etc that others without that math background don't seem to have. And having spent far longer working with software (self taught) than I ever spent with Civil Engineering, I often wonder what subconscious intuition of CS style math I'm missing that would help me.
I think people don't even realise when all that extensive math they studied is even helping them. They may have forgotten or not used the specifics in real life, but if they originally understood it well then they probably gained an important subconscious intuition that shapes, optimises and/or narrows that design trial and error. And the best engineers have a great subconscious intuition for finding solutions.
Note: I studied Civil Engineering, so my math background was nearly all Trig and Calculus rather than the Discreet Math, Logic or Number Theory etc that a Computer Science degree might entail. I've forgotten nearly all of it and never really used it IRL, but I can still appreciate having a 'feel' for relationships between changing quantities etc that others without that math background don't seem to have. And having spent far longer working with software (self taught) than I ever spent with Civil Engineering, I often wonder what subconscious intuition of CS style math I'm missing that would help me.