We all know that medical doctors take biology and chemistry classes among other science courses. And I think we all expect those science courses to include lab work. I'm guessing that's why we just assume medical doctors are scientists. And yet, throughout my life I have rarely witnessed medical doctors applying scientific methodology or utilizing scientific language. For the most part, what I witness are highly educated laborers executing rote tasks in accordance with preset guidance. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not throwing shade at the medical community. To be fair, I have equally witnessed the fact that most patients are not interested in being test subjects in an experiment.
I simply find it interesting that of all the people in my life who I find to be the strongest adherents to scientific thinking, language, and methodology, it’s not medical doctors. Quite understandably it is those people around me who are full-time professional scientists that maintain scientific viewpoints and behavioral approaches to things. I'm fortunate enough to live along the I-270 corridor in Maryland (USA) which, most people don't know, happens to contain a massive concentration of pharmaceutical and bio-medical research facilities. As a result, my neighborhood is packed with hard science PhDs who spend their days conducting experiments. And these professional researchers, I have found, are far more scientifically minded than any medical doctor I have ever seen in action.
I attribute this to the experimental nature of these researchers’ livelihoods. They apply the scientific method every day to discover new things and figure out answers to unresolved questions. Sometimes they have to do experiments that have already been done in order to confirm the validity of previous experiments. As a developer, that reminds me a lot of software testing. In fact, the whole scientific method my neighbors use day-in day-out reminds me a lot of what developers do (or probably should be doing) in order to figure out the puzzle that is their application under development.
Now, I’m not willing to completely equate what programmers do with what experimental scientists do, but its close. I would consider programming to be semi-scientific. And although my neighbors would say that scientific experimentation involves some creativity as well as luck, I think programming involves a lot more of both. That’s probably why I am drawn to the semi-scientific art of creating technological solutions. Figuring out a tough problem can feel like winning the lottery.
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