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> My opinion is that most CS graduates end up in a position of software engineering... I think you're right. > ... which is a subset of computer science. Her

> My opinion is that most CS graduates end up in a position of software engineering... I think you're right. > ... which is a subset of computer science. Here I disagree. It's not a subset. It's a different set, with some overlap. Think of it like chemistry and chemical engineering. Chemistry cares about where the outer-shell electrons go. Chemical engineering cares about making the stuff in multi-ton quantities without blowing up the city. There's some overlap, but they are very much not the same. That's why many universities have different departments for chemistry and chemical engineering. CS is about the theory of computation, the analysis of algorithms, and the design of programming languages. Software engineering is about the efficient production of larger-scale programs that adequately meet the need, whatever that need is. Those are not the same thing. In particular, software engineering deals with scale. You can't deal with a 20-million-line codebase like a 20-line algorithm. It takes a different approach and different tools.

palata 3y ago
Well I would think that the normal thing to do is to hire a chemist to do chemical engineering... isn't that how it works? You're right, though, that most people doing software engineering today have not studied computer science. Not sure if it is always a good thing to not have at least one computer scientist in a software engineering team :-).
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago
  > Well I would think that the normal thing to do is to hire a chemist to do chemical engineering... isn't that how it works? No. That's why chemical engineering is a degree. People with chemistry degrees should know the chemistry, but they probably don't know all that much about pipe bursting strength, or disposal of multi-ton quantities of waste products.
  - palata 3y ago
    Ok, I was not aware of that. Well, I don't know of any Software Engineering degrees. IMO software engineering requires basics of computer science (which you acquire by graduating in computer science). Then it requires a lot of experience (which is why I find it ridiculous when people become architects after 3 years in the industry). I see many "software engineers" who did not study computer science, and honestly many times they lack computer science knowledge, which makes their intuition a bit less valuable than a CS intuition (given the same amount of experience).

palata 3y ago

Well I would think that the normal thing to do is to hire a chemist to do chemical engineering... isn't that how it works? You're right, though, that most people doing software engineering today have not studied computer science. Not sure if it is always a good thing to not have at least one computer scientist in a software engineering team :-).

AnimalMuppet 3y ago
> Well I would think that the normal thing to do is to hire a chemist to do chemical engineering... isn't that how it works? No. That's why chemical engineering is a degree. People with chemistry degrees should know the chemistry, but they probably don't know all that much about pipe bursting strength, or disposal of multi-ton quantities of waste products.
- palata 3y ago
  Ok, I was not aware of that. Well, I don't know of any Software Engineering degrees. IMO software engineering requires basics of computer science (which you acquire by graduating in computer science). Then it requires a lot of experience (which is why I find it ridiculous when people become architects after 3 years in the industry). I see many "software engineers" who did not study computer science, and honestly many times they lack computer science knowledge, which makes their intuition a bit less valuable than a CS intuition (given the same amount of experience).