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We have to set the lower bar somewhere. Am I a spreadsheet engineer now because I calculate expenses in Excel? No, because that would be ridiculous. More to th
by 9dev 1y ago
We have to set the lower bar somewhere. Am I a spreadsheet engineer now because I calculate expenses in Excel? No, because that would be ridiculous.
More to the point: If the system you’re interacting with isn’t deterministic, you don’t understand how it really works internally, and you’re prodding it to see what happens if you do this instead of that—then that just isn’t engineering! or at least not in the sense that the word has been used, not without it becoming a term void of any specific meaning.
- akerl_ 1y ago> If the system you’re interacting with isn’t deterministic, you don’t understand how it really works internally, and you’re prodding it to see what happens if you do this instead of that—then that just isn’t engineering! Biological engineering would like a word. But to press your overall point: why? What bad happens if we discard an attempt at a “lower” bound and let somebody be a spreadsheet engineer or a breakfast engineer or a roulette engineer?
- 9dev 1y agoNothing really bad happens for sure. The term engineer just looses its meaning, becoming a generic way to refer to someone doing… something. I like language that's precise, expressive, and succinct. If someone says they're a baker, I know what they do. If we start to apply that label to anyone working in a bakery, even if they just operate the coffee machine, that holds no longer true, and more explanations are needed, more opportunities for misunderstandings arise, things become less efficient and more error-prone. How can that be desirable?
- akerl_ 1y agoIt doesn’t bother me as much as having an in-group trying to close the door on people they’ve decided are below the bar and don’t get to use a word. I think engineers will survive just fine.