Before software took over our lives, and software engineering was its own profession, coders were cut from the same cloth. Developers were mostly computer science graduates, with the remainder made up of electrical engineers, physicists and the odd mathematician.
These days the trade attracts talent from a wide variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines. It's not unusual to find world class coders who started in economics, geography or the arts. Of course becoming a developer doesn't mean renouncing your previous intellectual loyalties, and many techies continue on with their previous vocation through hobbies and side jobs.
The September BASH will investigate whether alloys are indeed stronger. Does our industry benefit from many different perspectives? Do skills cross over from poetry, music, and historical research into software engineering? Do our outside interests make us better at our trade? Or would we all be better off devoting our free time to Project Euler?
We have three excellent speakers to expound on this topic. As ever questions will be gratefully accepted and (hopefully) the debate will be impassioned. Once again this will be a virtual event, so there is no limit on attendance, but please sign up early so we can gauge interest.
