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Probably because software engineering doesn't have consequences as impactful as those fields do. If your lawyer screws up, you could end up in prison (or worse)

by CM30 7y ago

Probably because software engineering doesn't have consequences as impactful as those fields do. If your lawyer screws up, you could end up in prison (or worse). If a surgeon screws up, it could kill the patient. Same with policing and real world engineering, which have terrible consequences for failure (though the former seems to have a real problem with quality control itself). Meanwhile if your average developer or software engineer screws up, it's usually not a big deal. It might be in a few specific instances (like if they're working with medical software or systems onboard planes), but in most cases it's just 'some small business' website goes down' or 'a video game crashes'.

hashkb 7y ago
Massive privacy breaches? Self driving cars? Outer space? Medical implants? Robotic surgery? AI referees? Edit: Social Media, Elections, Politics, News, etc
- gowld 7y ago
  Which recent bootcamp grads are writing spacecraft software and cars?
  - hashkb 7y ago
    That isn't the point. The point is that it's not the case that software failures are inconsequential. I'm sure there are some bootcamp grads who would like to work at SpaceX; I happen to have a personal contact who I wouldn't trust to code his way out of a paper bag who just got a job at Equifax.
- JackRabbitSlim 7y ago
  It's cool. They will have one proper "engineer" to verify and sign off on everyone else's cheap and/or shoddy labor.
- CM30 7y ago
  There are definitely use cases where software engineering can bring about harm if done poorly/maliciously, but they're outnumbered by ones where it really won't/can't. How many people are working on those things you list above compared to say, websites or CMS plugins or video games or marketing banner or emails or what not? That's another huge difference between software engineering/web development/coding and something like medicine; there are few parts of the latter where screwing up won't have major consequences, and many parts of the former which won't. In that sense, I guess you could say tech is less like a 'field' or 'industry' and more like part of life that a bunch of different fields or industries depend on. It's like how 'writing English' covers lawyers writing documents for use in court, teachers teaching students in schools and colleges, authors writing novels and businesses writing copy for their websites/brochures. The former two cases would have some sort of licensing because they have actual consequences if someone doesn't know what they're doing, whereas the latter clearly wouldn't.

by CM30 7y ago

hashkb 7y ago

Massive privacy breaches? Self driving cars? Outer space? Medical implants? Robotic surgery? AI referees? Edit: Social Media, Elections, Politics, News, etc

gowld 7y ago
Which recent bootcamp grads are writing spacecraft software and cars?
- hashkb 7y ago
  That isn't the point. The point is that it's not the case that software failures are inconsequential. I'm sure there are some bootcamp grads who would like to work at SpaceX; I happen to have a personal contact who I wouldn't trust to code his way out of a paper bag who just got a job at Equifax.
JackRabbitSlim 7y ago
It's cool. They will have one proper "engineer" to verify and sign off on everyone else's cheap and/or shoddy labor.
CM30 7y ago
There are definitely use cases where software engineering can bring about harm if done poorly/maliciously, but they're outnumbered by ones where it really won't/can't. How many people are working on those things you list above compared to say, websites or CMS plugins or video games or marketing banner or emails or what not? That's another huge difference between software engineering/web development/coding and something like medicine; there are few parts of the latter where screwing up won't have major consequences, and many parts of the former which won't. In that sense, I guess you could say tech is less like a 'field' or 'industry' and more like part of life that a bunch of different fields or industries depend on. It's like how 'writing English' covers lawyers writing documents for use in court, teachers teaching students in schools and colleges, authors writing novels and businesses writing copy for their websites/brochures. The former two cases would have some sort of licensing because they have actual consequences if someone doesn't know what they're doing, whereas the latter clearly wouldn't.