Oh this is a good question! Ill be honest, I read it earlier and I was stumped. I think I got it though...
Being able to intensely concentrate for extended periods of time. There are some major differences, and I will say that programming is a million times less stressful. But the need concentrate is the link.
The big difference between the two, if I was not focusing at key times on the railroad, I could have very easily killed someone. I lost friends on that job do to people not paying attention. Say we were switching cars in the yards, if you are not paying attention to the people on the ground, and listening to the radio, or watching their hand signals, you could throw them off the back of a car or couple them between two cars. Sorry for getting morbid, but this is a very real thing on the railroad. I took my job extremely serious because I wanted the person I was working with to go home to their family. And thankfully because of that mindset, we always went home, in tact.
In code as I am sure you are aware, we have long sessions of problem solving, bug fixing, and systems design. There is nothing more frustrating then getting knocked out of the zone. While the two are different forms of concentration, I think that is the link.
Oh and one more thing, team work. You have to be a good team player in both industries.
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Oh this is a good question! Ill be honest, I read it earlier and I was stumped. I think I got it though...
Being able to intensely concentrate for extended periods of time. There are some major differences, and I will say that programming is a million times less stressful. But the need concentrate is the link.
The big difference between the two, if I was not focusing at key times on the railroad, I could have very easily killed someone. I lost friends on that job do to people not paying attention. Say we were switching cars in the yards, if you are not paying attention to the people on the ground, and listening to the radio, or watching their hand signals, you could throw them off the back of a car or couple them between two cars. Sorry for getting morbid, but this is a very real thing on the railroad. I took my job extremely serious because I wanted the person I was working with to go home to their family. And thankfully because of that mindset, we always went home, in tact.
In code as I am sure you are aware, we have long sessions of problem solving, bug fixing, and systems design. There is nothing more frustrating then getting knocked out of the zone. While the two are different forms of concentration, I think that is the link.
Oh and one more thing, team work. You have to be a good team player in both industries.