This is the class that made my career. The idea that humanities sorts of skills – critical reading, analysis, discussion — could contribute to the work of systems engineering was a revelation. That I had the knack for it, and that it turns out to be the core work of engineering, I found later.

The THERAC paper, the X11 paper, the Kerberos sequence—still resonate 22 years later. But the big lesson wasn’t in any of the papers, but in the structure as it communicated that engineering was not a solitary enterprise.