What do computational engineering and building furniture have in common? Not much, except that I’ve been doing both recently, which got me thinking about how our approach to each has changed a lot over the last 80 years or so.

Imagine you’re a carpentry apprentice in the 1920s. You go to the builder’s merchant and pick up everything you need to get started – a set square, hand saw, spirit level, hammer, chisel, and a sharp pencil. You mark out the required cuts and get to work.

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