In The Brain of Martin Thompson: Mechanical Sympathy

This is a free event but please also register at the Skills Matter website (http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/design-architecture/mechanical-sympathy/mh-8440)

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What can software development learn from the motor racing industry? By the 1970’s we began to see over specialisation of drivers and designers leading to drivers who knew little about how their cars worked. Jackie Stewart, 3 times F1 world champion, coined the phrase “Mechanical Sympathy” as a term for the driver and the machine working together in harmony. This can be summarised in that a driver does not need to know how to build an engine but they need to know the fundamentals of how one works to get the best out of it.

For software development, have we reached the point of over specialisation whereby developers no longer understand the fundamentals of how a computer works? Are we more influenced by fashion than science these days? Is fashion just a poor proxy for stylish design that can co-exist with science?

In this session we will explore these questions and how we can strike a balance between elegant design and the application of science in the development of great modern software.

Find out more and get registered at the Skills Matter event page! (http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/design-architecture/mechanical-sympathy/mh-8440)