3 ms·
> which he deems equivalent to what rocket engineers do when they "engineer" a rocket that flies into space, but instead of a rocket it's some website. Keep in
by anon291 2y ago
> which he deems equivalent to what rocket engineers do when they "engineer" a rocket that flies into space, but instead of a rocket it's some website. Keep in mind that as amazing as rockets that carry humans into space are, it is not as amazing as some plain website because these "software engineers" likely get paid waay more then rocket engineers.
Not all software engineers write websites. I don't understand where in the lexicon this distinction has been lost. Also, there's a wide variety of website, some of which are just user interfaces for very complicated services.
- randomdata 2y ago> Not all software engineers write websites. Apparently it is also the case that not all HN commenters can spot a blatant joke.
- anon291 2y agoThis is a common enough sentiment around these parts though, and it deserves to be addressed.
- randomdata 2y agoI've never seen such sentiment outside of joking around, but even accepting your claim, who cares? What difference does it make?
- anon291 2y agoBecause websites et al fail a lot and a lot of software that runs invisibly does not. Typically engineering refers to something that works at a particular rate of failure (low hopefully).
- randomdata 2y agoOkay, sure, you alluded to that earlier... But who cares? Even if what you say is true, that does not give it significance. You somehow completely missed the question. Let me try again: Who cares? What difference does it make?
- ahartmetz 2y agoYou have: "full stack" developers
- fragmede 2y agoThe underlying sentiment of making these distinctions is that I'm better than you, which is one way to approach everyone else in your life, but it's kinda odious.
- anon291 2y agoNot all websites are created equal either. Engineering facebook is a lot different than a simple CRUD app. Your ability to write code does not make you a better or worse person, but it may make you a better or worse programmer. This attitude (conflating competence for intrinsic worth) is toxic, but it says more about your frame than mine.
- ninetyninenine 2y agoYou're talking about those guys who write code for the inside of my car or the person who wrote the software for my smart tooth brush? These guys aren't called software engineers. Like I said above, we refer to these people as "coders". "Software engineering" is mainly about making a website like petsmart.com or facebook.com.
- anon291 2y agoNo, I'm talking about writing an OS kernel, compiler, math library, networking stack, CAD software, simulators, etc. These are engineering heavy challenges and absolutely software engineering. This is exactly what I'm talking about... no one sees the invisible software that rarely ever fails. Yeah, petsmart.com has errors, but it's incredibly unlikely it's due to a routing stack software failure (failure, not misconfiguration).
- ninetyninenine 2y ago>No, I'm talking about writing an OS kernel, compiler, math library, networking stack, CAD software, simulators, etc Oooh. I see what you're saying. But these people aren't called software engineers either. They're called "programmers". >These are engineering heavy challenges and absolutely software engineering. This is exactly what I'm talking about... no one sees the invisible software that rarely ever fails. Yeah, petsmart.com has errors, but it's incredibly unlikely it's due to a routing stack software failure (failure, not misconfiguration). Software engineering is about solving problems. For example the problem of attention was solved by people on tik tok. Or the modern dating problem was solved by people who work on tinder. These are what I term "real" engineering problems. Something like CAD software or OS's are more ephemeral stuff that nobody ever thinks about so these kinds of things relegated to programmers or coders.