Aerospace engineer who dabbles in code here: I've seen a lot of these articles and they always miss what I feel is the central tenet of engineering, which is t

Aerospace engineer who dabbles in code here: I've seen a lot of these articles and they always miss what I feel is the central tenet of engineering, which is the ethical piece. I've said it before on HN and I'll say it again: Engineering is a social process, not a technical one. It's a social process because society has certain expectations of the people who design bridges and skyscrapers and cars and toaster ovens. By certifying a design you as the engineer are making a representation to society, not just that you are trained but also that you have conducted yourself in an ethical manner. You are making a representation that, for example, you did not cut corners just to save your employer money, or that you sought fair compensation for your work (so that you are properly motivated to carry out your due diligence), or that you didn't opt to use $fancy_new_but_not_proven product merely because the manufacturer took you out to the strip club. Conversely, when engineers screw up then society rightfully demands that there be consequences whether punitive or remedial. This is why engineering isn't just a job but a Profession, that is to say Engineering as a field is self-governing. Professional Engineers are accountable to their fraternal orders (regulatory bodies) who are themselves accountable to society. Given limitless time and money, anyone can design a bridge that will stay up. But only a properly trained engineer can design a bridge that will just stay up, and therein lies the difference between a software engineer designing and maybe implementing code that will fly on the Space Shuttle versus me slapping together some javascript for my personal website. The latter is not engineering just because I'm an engineer.