4 ms·
Fixing shit is not a task of an engineer, but a technician.
by anthk 3y ago
Fixing shit is not a task of an engineer, but a technician.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoCentering a div for six figures also doesn't make you an engineer.
- Uptrenda 3y agoAt my last job I was hired to fix security issues found in some code being audited. I didn't 'write' or design the code myself. Yet the process was really just the same as regular software engineering. I wrote new code to implement algorithms that were missing, fixed validation logic, improved testing, and wrote some simple scripts to make working with some of the file formats easier. I'd have just been a 'technician' to you but IMO: it involved all the same skills as if I'd have designed it myself. You still need to know what all the code does well enough to have written it and have the skills to improve it. So I'm not sure the distinction really matters here.
- aeonik 3y agoNot gonna lie. This perspective leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Why do you think engineers don't or shouldn't fix things? Isn't the very idea of designing a system: solving a problem, and isn't problem solving synonymous with "fixing a problem". One can choose to implement various formal and rigorous methods throughout a process, but at the end of the day it's all the same activity.
- msmenardi 3y agoas an ex-technician, I'd have to agree. With the caveat that they should choose how they want to fix your shit.
- vdaea 3y agoThis is some bitter truth, hence the downvotes.
- thelastparadise 3y agoHow do you downvote on hn?
- vdaea 3y agoYou need to have a certain amount of karma points to see the downvote arrow. I think 500 so you're almost there.