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Engineering is a practice. Like medicine, but we’re building machines that run in a virtual space. We architect and build houses in our minds. We send those pro

Engineering is a practice. Like medicine, but we’re building machines that run in a virtual space. We architect and build houses in our minds. We send those projects to production to make the business money. That’s engineering.

JasserInicide 3y ago
Eh yes and no. "Traditional" engineering professions, ones where you need to get licensed, are all grounded in physics. Software engineering isn't (ignore the fact that bits running on silicon is physics, it's irrelevant). Software engineering is based on best practices and algorithms that are based on...some guy writing them, saying they're good, and others trusting that they're good. There's a million different ways to make something. Million different opinions. Million different cargo cults. It's why making a FE exam for software would be impossible; there's just too many ways to do something and often very little evidence why it's good.
- TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
  Engineering = Applied Physics. Software Engineering = Applied Math. Both are about modelling, so you have a good idea if a solution works before you build it. If you're gluing stuff together and hoping it's not going to fall apart too often you're not doing either.
  - JasserInicide 3y ago
    If you're gluing stuff together and hoping it's not going to fall apart too often you're not doing either. That's precisely what the majority of "software engineers" are doing nowadays. That's what web development is. Those that are creating tools other developers use and build things using algorithms/data structures in novel ways (essentially applied math as you said), they are the real software engineers in my eyes.
  - 908B64B197 3y ago
    And the last piece of the equation: Applied Physics = Applied Math.
- mablopoule 3y ago
  "There's a million different ways to make something. Million different opinions. Million different cargo cults." So... different tradeoff? Sounds like engineering to me :).
- wlonkly 3y ago
  I suppose technically the timing of traffic lights or deciding whether to use a roundabout involves physics in that if you get it wrong, cars bounce off each other, but I'm not sure civil engineering is any more grounded in physics than software engineering is.

JasserInicide 3y ago

Eh yes and no. "Traditional" engineering professions, ones where you need to get licensed, are all grounded in physics. Software engineering isn't (ignore the fact that bits running on silicon is physics, it's irrelevant). Software engineering is based on best practices and algorithms that are based on...some guy writing them, saying they're good, and others trusting that they're good. There's a million different ways to make something. Million different opinions. Million different cargo cults. It's why making a FE exam for software would be impossible; there's just too many ways to do something and often very little evidence why it's good.

TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
Engineering = Applied Physics. Software Engineering = Applied Math. Both are about modelling, so you have a good idea if a solution works before you build it. If you're gluing stuff together and hoping it's not going to fall apart too often you're not doing either.
- JasserInicide 3y ago
  If you're gluing stuff together and hoping it's not going to fall apart too often you're not doing either. That's precisely what the majority of "software engineers" are doing nowadays. That's what web development is. Those that are creating tools other developers use and build things using algorithms/data structures in novel ways (essentially applied math as you said), they are the real software engineers in my eyes.
- 908B64B197 3y ago
  And the last piece of the equation: Applied Physics = Applied Math.
mablopoule 3y ago
"There's a million different ways to make something. Million different opinions. Million different cargo cults." So... different tradeoff? Sounds like engineering to me :).
wlonkly 3y ago
I suppose technically the timing of traffic lights or deciding whether to use a roundabout involves physics in that if you get it wrong, cars bounce off each other, but I'm not sure civil engineering is any more grounded in physics than software engineering is.