It didn’t used to bother me back when I could assume everyone else understood it was an industry specific title based on a metaphor! I even used to defend the t

It didn’t used to bother me back when I could assume everyone else understood it was an industry specific title based on a metaphor! I even used to defend the title by saying, “Relax; it’s an industry-specific title, not a kind of engineer.” Like “Software Architect” is understood not to be a kind of architect. But over the last few years I’ve seen dozens of HNers lay out technical arguments for why they ARE engineers. So, I never took a single engineering class, have no engineering cert, don’t know much about the ethos, and barely even know the definition without looking it up. But I’m supposed to not rock the boat, and claim to be one, like I accidentally became an engineer in the course of designing, planning, fortifying, testing, and measuring software? Like Daniel-san accidentally became a karate master by waxing cars? Sorry, no. Our “engineering” is just another partially applicable metaphor for what software devs do. But software development is its own set of disciplines. It’s wonderful to pull helpful concepts from other disciplines, but I draw the line at coopting the whole designation.