Comment by thomastjeffery | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thomastjeffery | Hacker News Reader

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> Perhaps it would be prudent to demonstrate similar care when addressing the government organization that cares very much about licensing engineers.

I disagree.

In this scenario, the state has redefined the meaning of "engineer" in a way that is very detrimental.

A Medical Doctor or physician implies with his or her title, authority to practice.

The word "engineer" does not carry this implication, nor should it.

When I tell people that I am a "Software Engineer", I am expressing years of self-education, nuanced understanding, etc. This title is not misconstrued as having a degree or license, of which I have neither. If I want to claim to have a degree, I will be explicit about it.

Calling myself an "engineer" is a very useful way to express the complicated body of knowledge that I possess. If the word suddenly implies credentials, of which I do not possess, I am suddenly considered a fraud.

TL;DR You can consider me a fraud by redefining what an "engineer" is, but that doesn't make me one, so please don't redefine engineer. That does not help discourse.

> In this scenario, the state has redefined the meaning of "engineer" in a way that is very detrimental.

This is backwards from my perspective. Engineering has long been a licensed profession. It is only recently that a group of people have chosen, for some reason beyond me, to call themselves "software engineers" and avail themselves of the industrial exemption. I'm not a fan but the ship has sailed on that one.

> A Medical Doctor or physician implies with his or her title, authority to practice.

There are many MDs and DOs that are not licensed by their state boards and they too have to take care with misrepresenting themselves as physicians licensed to practice. The same is true of people using the industrial exemption to practice engineering, one cannot use the industrial exemption to practice before the public.

TL;DR from my perspective (PhD in engineering but not an engineer) there is a newer group people who are attempting to redefine what "engineer" means as a profession, and that redefinition relaxes education, experience, and professional conduct standards by quite a bit. I realize that like the Browncoats of Firefly I am on the losing side, and also like the Browncoats I don't like it.

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