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> So when you don't know the difference between two things you assume there is no difference and not only disregard those better informed than you who claim ot

> So when you don't know the difference between two things you assume there is no difference and not only disregard those better informed than you who claim otherwise, but try to tell them how simple their profession is? Are you really snapping at me rudely over a disagreement about the differences between engineering and programming? To answer your question, no. I'm saying that it's the same technical domain. > Yes, an engineer must understand fundamental principles, but that is true of any profession. How can you set up a database without knowing the fundamentals of how a database works? Excellent point. Because it's at the heart of my reasoning too. Identify those fundamentals and you can apply my argument. In my prior post I noted the fundamentals in engineering are specifically physical principles. In the case of databases they are not, instead they are completely at an abstract level.

jjk166 6y ago
> To answer your question, no. I'm saying that it's the same technical domain. And I am saying that these things are radically different, and thus the only way you could classify them as the same technical domain is if you are ignorant of those differences, or define domain so broadly that everything affected by physics is the same domain. You specifically refer to engineers remaining in a narrow domain and specifically gave an example of bridges and transmission lines as distinct domains, and it would be oxymoronic to talk about a narrow broad domain. You not only admitted that you have no idea what you're talking about, you used the fact that you were ignorant as evidence in support of your claim. Going back to the example, both things employ statics. Statics is the most basic tool of engineering - it is the analysis of forces on something which isn't accelerating. There is no way to completely avoid statics for anything that physically exists. Statics is to engineering as wood is to carpenters. It is equally absurd to say that two engineering tasks are in the same domain because they both use statics as it is that two carpentry tasks are in the same domain because they both involve wood. The engineers designing bridges and transmission lines both employ statics, as do those designing kidney dialysis filters and rocket engine combustion chambers and acoustic panels and laser cutters, all six of which could very well be done by the same engineer (I've personally been employed to do five of the above so far in my career). Your original claim, which I argued against, was: > The engineer generally stays with a set of fundamental domain principles their entire career (e.g. sticks with bridges as opposed to transmission lines) while programmers tend to stay at the top layers while the technologies below the surface change radically. Your argument had nothing to do with the difference between principles rooted in physics vs mathematics. You were saying that programmers use high level, general abstractions while engineers make more limited use of abstractions and remain highly specialized. I am saying that engineers work on a wide variety of problems over their careers, involving radically different physical principles, and that they abstract away many of the details of these various narrow domains so that they can work on the top level.
- unishark 6y ago
  > Your argument had nothing to do with the difference between principles rooted in physics vs mathematics. True. Where did mathematics come in? Math does not abstract away the fundamentals in the way that I am talking about. Whether you use messy coordinates or elegant tensors to describe a fundamental property, you are still working with the fundamental property. Also perhaps the only way to get through to someone like you is to point out I have a doctorate in electrical engineering, and teach in a EECS department, working with both engineers and programmers daily and even helping to design the curricula (fyi, a person who specializes in databases is a real thing, we have no less than 4 grad-level classes on them, and there are no CS classes entirely on "variables" analogous to classes on statics). I have spent literally decades pondering the mindset differences between them. You should give up trying to argue me down because you won't get there by trying to twist my own words against me. Oh and in EE we generally don't use statics. Pretty much ever. Though I did teach a dynamics class that included some one time. By the way that tongue-in-cheek reference to statics was an failed attempt at using self-deprecation to tiptoe around your oversized ego. Nice job weaponizing it.

jjk166 6y ago

> To answer your question, no. I'm saying that it's the same technical domain. And I am saying that these things are radically different, and thus the only way you could classify them as the same technical domain is if you are ignorant of those differences, or define domain so broadly that everything affected by physics is the same domain. You specifically refer to engineers remaining in a narrow domain and specifically gave an example of bridges and transmission lines as distinct domains, and it would be oxymoronic to talk about a narrow broad domain. You not only admitted that you have no idea what you're talking about, you used the fact that you were ignorant as evidence in support of your claim. Going back to the example, both things employ statics. Statics is the most basic tool of engineering - it is the analysis of forces on something which isn't accelerating. There is no way to completely avoid statics for anything that physically exists. Statics is to engineering as wood is to carpenters. It is equally absurd to say that two engineering tasks are in the same domain because they both use statics as it is that two carpentry tasks are in the same domain because they both involve wood. The engineers designing bridges and transmission lines both employ statics, as do those designing kidney dialysis filters and rocket engine combustion chambers and acoustic panels and laser cutters, all six of which could very well be done by the same engineer (I've personally been employed to do five of the above so far in my career). Your original claim, which I argued against, was: > The engineer generally stays with a set of fundamental domain principles their entire career (e.g. sticks with bridges as opposed to transmission lines) while programmers tend to stay at the top layers while the technologies below the surface change radically. Your argument had nothing to do with the difference between principles rooted in physics vs mathematics. You were saying that programmers use high level, general abstractions while engineers make more limited use of abstractions and remain highly specialized. I am saying that engineers work on a wide variety of problems over their careers, involving radically different physical principles, and that they abstract away many of the details of these various narrow domains so that they can work on the top level.

unishark 6y ago
> Your argument had nothing to do with the difference between principles rooted in physics vs mathematics. True. Where did mathematics come in? Math does not abstract away the fundamentals in the way that I am talking about. Whether you use messy coordinates or elegant tensors to describe a fundamental property, you are still working with the fundamental property. Also perhaps the only way to get through to someone like you is to point out I have a doctorate in electrical engineering, and teach in a EECS department, working with both engineers and programmers daily and even helping to design the curricula (fyi, a person who specializes in databases is a real thing, we have no less than 4 grad-level classes on them, and there are no CS classes entirely on "variables" analogous to classes on statics). I have spent literally decades pondering the mindset differences between them. You should give up trying to argue me down because you won't get there by trying to twist my own words against me. Oh and in EE we generally don't use statics. Pretty much ever. Though I did teach a dynamics class that included some one time. By the way that tongue-in-cheek reference to statics was an failed attempt at using self-deprecation to tiptoe around your oversized ego. Nice job weaponizing it.