4 ms·

I've found this to be generally true. Engineers are passionate and intelligent people, but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts i

by 2four2 2y ago

I've found this to be generally true. Engineers are passionate and intelligent people, but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything.

rokkitmensch 2y ago
Dentist's curse.
tivert 2y ago
> but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything. That condition has a name, and it is "Engineer's Disease" or "Engineer's Syndrome."
- fragmede 2y ago
  which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease
  - tivert 2y ago
    > which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease Even if that's the case, I think framing it as "Engineer's Disease" is pretty critical for HN, which at times can become a literal orgy of it. Also, SV culture amplifies Engineer's Disease into a destructive force only rivaled by its counterpart in finance. Doctors and lawyers who suffer from something similar are far more limited in their effects.
    - fragmede 2y ago
      Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline.
      - tivert 2y ago
        > Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline. I think that's kind of missing the point. Also, I don't think many doctors are making the switch to engineering. Why would they? There are probably far more engineers becoming doctors than vice versa (though the total numbers in both directions are likely small). The specific problem with Engineer's disease, is that engineers have the job of building things for others, and thus have the opportunity to force their half-baked ideas onto them. SV has amplified that and turned it into a monster, by elevating things like "disruption" into something like a moral imperative. The counterpart in finance and the closely related managerialism rival it because those jobs involve control of others. Doctors though? If they get arrogant about some other field, they usually just end up hurting themselves or a few others (like they learn to sail, get in over their heads, and sink their ship in a storm). They don't have a mechanism to do more damage.
- piuantiderp 2y ago
  Midwitism and lack of culture
rpastuszak 2y ago
Reminds me of this article by Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ > A line I often hear from programmers is that programming is like "having to build a plane while it's flying", implicitly making the case that programming is harder than designing and building a plane since people who design and build planes can do so before the plane is flying1. But, of course, someone who designs airplanes could just as easily say "gosh, my job would be very easy if I could build planes with 4 9s of uptime and my plane were allowed to crash and kill all of the passengers for 1 minute every week". We tend to think that some problems are only as complex as our understanding of them.

by 2four2 2y ago

I've found this to be generally true. Engineers are passionate and intelligent people, but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything.

rokkitmensch 2y ago

Dentist's curse.

tivert 2y ago

> but frequently make the mistake of thinking this means they are experts in everything. That condition has a name, and it is "Engineer's Disease" or "Engineer's Syndrome."

fragmede 2y ago
which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease
- tivert 2y ago
  > which tbh isn't fair to the doctors and lawyer who also suffer from the disease Even if that's the case, I think framing it as "Engineer's Disease" is pretty critical for HN, which at times can become a literal orgy of it. Also, SV culture amplifies Engineer's Disease into a destructive force only rivaled by its counterpart in finance. Doctors and lawyers who suffer from something similar are far more limited in their effects.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline.
    - tivert 2y ago
      > Doctors and lawyers can become programmers far more easily than programmers can become doctors and lawyers though, so though the SV amplification is real, doctors and lawyers can also wreak havoc outside their discipline. I think that's kind of missing the point. Also, I don't think many doctors are making the switch to engineering. Why would they? There are probably far more engineers becoming doctors than vice versa (though the total numbers in both directions are likely small). The specific problem with Engineer's disease, is that engineers have the job of building things for others, and thus have the opportunity to force their half-baked ideas onto them. SV has amplified that and turned it into a monster, by elevating things like "disruption" into something like a moral imperative. The counterpart in finance and the closely related managerialism rival it because those jobs involve control of others. Doctors though? If they get arrogant about some other field, they usually just end up hurting themselves or a few others (like they learn to sail, get in over their heads, and sink their ship in a storm). They don't have a mechanism to do more damage.
piuantiderp 2y ago
Midwitism and lack of culture

rpastuszak 2y ago

Reminds me of this article by Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/ > A line I often hear from programmers is that programming is like "having to build a plane while it's flying", implicitly making the case that programming is harder than designing and building a plane since people who design and build planes can do so before the plane is flying1. But, of course, someone who designs airplanes could just as easily say "gosh, my job would be very easy if I could build planes with 4 9s of uptime and my plane were allowed to crash and kill all of the passengers for 1 minute every week". We tend to think that some problems are only as complex as our understanding of them.