Hacker News Reader

Comment by Jean-Papoulos | Hacker News Reader

I feel like woodworking is almost an exact opposite of programming. I can run the code to see if it works and it costs me nothing. In woodworking however, "let's cut that off to see how it looks" is not an option most of the time. In general, trial and error is quite limited (notably due to budget and time reasons) in woodworking while the opposite is true in programming and that fundamentally changes the way you work.

View on HN

A lot of woodworkers build their projects in something like Sketchup before they even make the first cut, so you can basically see what the end product will look like without wasting any material.

I think woodworking is similar to programming because they both involve similar problem solving skills. You have to figure out how to build a thing to serve a use case using the tools and resources you have available.

In coding the implementation is done by computers, devops, and business people, your job is pretty much like detailed planning, aka writing code.

In woodworking the plan is basically trivial compared to how hard the implementation is, and does not exactly define the finished product, because there's made-to-fit steps.

To me the planning phase of woodworking is a lot like coding.

You come up with an overall idea, then break it down into a skeleton and plan what structures you need (do I use pocket holes, or a mortise and tenon?). Once that’s done you fill in the details much like writing your functions and methods.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com