Re: work times & accommodation @tokyo, WAS: Re: [tlug] Embedded linux dev wanting to find work in Tokyo.. Seeking advice.

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Attila Kinali writes:

 > I have not read it, but i know the message, having experienced
 > it myself a few times. But my question was, why doesn't the same
 > principles apply to general engineering? What makes software so
 > different?

My answer is "read the book".  Knowing a few of the McThought sound
bites that have become part of the culture is no substitute for
reading the book.

The same principles do apply, of course.  Just as the same principles
apply to Japanese and English: they have nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
syntactic rules for combining them.  Would you say, then, that you
don't see that much difference between the languages?

The basic empirical fact is that there are lots of hardware
engineering shops that have learned to meet deadlines, but relatively
few software shops.  The philosophical/psychological basis seems to be
related to the constraints that hardware engineers face, which
software engineers don't.  The book proceeds from there.