Where are have all the software engineers gone? [video]

Engineering is based on forming a hypothesis and testing for failure. If the current generation is less likely to test for failure, they will fail at the scientific method, every time.

Culture, at least in the United States, tends to avoid failure or talking about it.

Early days of computing had more engineers, given they were designing the physical systems that ran the code they were writing. After mainstream computing hit the market, this allowed others, like mathematicians, to write code without designing the computer they ran on.

Engineers embrace failure and use it to create better code. But, that's super boring and people tend to avoid marketing or raising interest on failures, even though it is common knowledge that we learn more from failure than success.

That means success, with an avoidance of discussing failure, became a "thing" that people ended up talking about more. This results in more people wanting to talk about their successes, and being more like people talking about their successes.

And, to make matters worse, theories always sound good if they present hypothetical positive outcomes. They are far easier to sell quickly into others, so we preference that and the cycle continues.

If you want to find the software engineers, look where failures are accepted, scientific methods are embraced, and reliable code is desired. Databases. Flight systems. Robotics. Medical equipment. Space stuff.