It undermines a long tradition of designing and building infrastructure in the public interest.

Old, but fun read that argues that today’s programmers are not like typical Engineers and shouldn’t really call themselves that as Engineering requires certification, is subject to government regulation, bear a burden to the public, etc.

  • leisesprecher@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    11 个月前

    All this gate keeping is bullshit, but I do have to agree that we are really bad at actually engineering.

    • enkers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      11 个月前

      I don’t think gate keeping engineering is bullshit, software or otherwise. In fact I think it is one of the few eminently important things to gatekeep.

      If computer systems have peoples lives depending on them, having accredited engineers that may be part of a chain of liability for their mistakes is a potentially life saving measure. It provides increased guarantee that someone will be held responsible, be it the firm, or in the case of bankruptcy, the individual engineer.

      This provides a significant incentive to only sign off on work that meets all relevant safety criteria.

      I’m not sure if that’s how it works in software engineering, but it certainly should.

      • jonathan@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        11 个月前

        There are separate titles for accredited engineers in the US and UK. If anyone cared enough they’d already be using them. The fact is, vanishingly few software engineers work on high risk (to human life) projects. Versus, for example, structural engineers doing it daily.

    • xor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      5 个月前

      that’s not what gatekeeping is….
      you don’t “gatekeep” qualifications and skills.
      “you’re not really an artist because you were born rich” would be an example of gatekeeping.
      “you’re not really a doctor because you didn’t graduate from medical school” is just the definition of a doctor.

  • rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    2·
    11 个月前

    There is a huge difference between a “programmer” who just codes, and a software engineer, who studied computer science and learned the skills for problem solving as an engineer. The latter is protected in many countries.

  • BetaDoggo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 个月前

    Tech bros have ruined the prestige of a lot of titles. Software “Engineer”, Systems “Architect”, Data “Scientist”, Computer “Wizard”, etc.

  • weker01@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    11 个月前

    In Germany engineer is a regulated term. Computer scientists wanting to call themselves engineer or software engineer need to complete certain higher education programs. A B.Sc. program in CS is enough for example.