This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Greg Vaughn. Original Post: Re: Best Practice vs. Useful Practice Feed Title: Potential Differences Feed URL: http://gigavolt.net/blog/development/index.rss Feed Description: Greg Vaughn on Agile methodologies, Java, OS X, whatever piques my interest! Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Greg Vaughn Latest Posts From Potential Differences

Gee, it’s been a long time since my last entry. For both of my readers, I guess now you know I haven’t fallen off the end of the earth. I’ve been buried at work and with personal projects, and I’m afraid writing has fallen by the wayside for the time being. I hope things are slowing down enough that I can get back into it. I’ve got a backlog of ideas for posts. I had some time and was really struck by some synchronicity today.

Esther Derby’s great observation on Best Practice vs. Useful Practice reminds me of an experience I had back in grad school. I was studying physics and taking a course in Solid State physics. There was also an Electrical Enginnering student taking the class as an elective. He was in our study group. I think it was a homework assignment we were discussing and he asked for help. I began to discuss the physics principles involved, but he quickly interrupted me and said that he didn’t care about that, he just wanted to know what formula to use. My jaw dropped as I wondered why in the world he was taking this physics course that wasn’t a requirement.

In light of Esther’s discussion, he wanted the “best” practice. I was offering a useful one. I wonder if there’s a correlation between an engineering and scientific mindset in approaching programming.