Disconnected is a way to describe our industry with regard to standards and practices. We have two worlds in this industry and they seem to be disconnected. One world is setting standards and the other is what’s being done in the field.
Codes and standards are generally written by engineers. They tend to base decisions on bias through lab testing and computer modeling. While the field is more biased on the experience of field applications through trial and error, the lab testing and computer modeling that drive codes and specifications also have an impact on the field. But it can take years to reach them and when it does, it is already outdated. The other issue is that while science has things to teach the field, the people in the field know things too. They have learned from experience of doing things that are not based on theory or perfect lab results.