7 ms·
His distinction between 'engineer' and 'developer' is artificial and easily criticized. That isn't what is interesting in this article. There are a lot of thing
by agarden 11y ago
His distinction between 'engineer' and 'developer' is artificial and easily criticized. That isn't what is interesting in this article. There are a lot of things that are.
Their method for avoiding the proliferation of different tools is interesting.
His discussion of the kind of people they want, once you ignore the semantics, is interesting. They want people who take responsibility and are always pushing the boundary of their knowledge into new fields. That's interesting.
My favorite part of the article was right at the end: "instead of asking questions about “why did something fail,” we want to ask why something succeeded, which is really easy to skip over."
- ta0967 11y ago> His discussion of the kind of people they want, once you ignore the semantics, is interesting. semantics == meaning. once you ignore what he's trying to say, the discussion ends, no? edit: yes, i could care less about semantics of semantics, but i can't bring myself to it.
- agarden 11y agoWhether 'developer' and 'engineer' really mean what he says they mean is a question of semantics. Getting bogged down in a discussion of the appropriate uses of said terms, however, ignores what he is trying to say.
- linkregister 11y agoI agree that the use of the 'engineer' vs 'developer' terms in his context was not important. What does irk me is that in real life, software developers who meet the Etsy CTO's standard often can't call themselves engineers. In many countries, misrepresenting oneself as an engineer without accreditation is against the law! [1] In the U.S., there's no official occupational category for Software Engineer. It's just Software Developer (Applications), Software Developer (Systems), and Computer Programmer. It is possible to get accreditation (http://ncees.org/exams/pe-exam/ http://ncees.org/exams/pe-exam/, under Software), but it didn't appear very useful to me aside from being able to call yourself an Engineer. [1] http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/engineering/quebec-order-of-engineers-wins-legal-battle-with-microsoft/1000018197/ http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/engineering/quebec...
- djcapelis 11y agoI just want to point out that you can't become a P.E. in almost any jurisdiction just by taking a test. You have to complete a number of other requirements first.
- lgunsch 11y agoI'm curious why it irks you. There is actually software engineers. At the U of A, where I went, Software Engineering is separate than Computing Science. Software Engineering was run by the Engineering department, and they had the same rigours as the rest of engineering has. However, Computing Science was run by the Science department.
- daveguy 11y agoAt the U of A? Could you ground that symbol, please?
- lgunsch 11y agoUniversity of Alberta, in Canada.
- polysaturate 11y agoAh ha! UofA means University of Arizona around here
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- msbarnett 11y agoNote that, even though you can get a Software Engineering degree from the U of A, your likelihood of ever qualifying for your PEng is next to nil. In 99.99% of software jobs in the Canadian or US job markets you're simply never going to be able to accumulate enough eligible hours in your 6 year EIT eligibility period, because of the way APEGA defines things. Software jobs where you're supervised by a P.Eng., as required by APEGA, are likewise virtually unheard of.
- Kinnard 11y agoIt is artificial and easily criticized but I think it is also widely understood and accepted.
- gech 11y agoWill I be rewarded for responsibility of imperfect things? Will the company provide compensation and the necessary environment (trial equipment and software) for training to push the boundary of my knowledge?
- Phlarp 11y agoHow much time out of each day will be dedicated towards "pushing new boundaries of knowledge"? When large projects squeeze into tight deadlines, how much of that boundary pushing will be abandoned in favor of shipping things?
- nickbauman 11y agoProgramming is a liberal art. As in: it involves language and explication of processes. The amount of actual engineering involved in making a successful application (like Etsy) is actually quite low. The amount of clear code that focuses relentlessly on the mission at hand (an admittedly squishy metric — after all, that's the nature of art) also seems to be quite low in the typical application, but naturally needs to be much higher. For instance just putting a platform like Etsy entirely on Google App Engine would allow Etsy to focus on the liberal arts side of the problem. Because GAE "solves" most all the engineering problems that typically have plagued software practices on the web...