UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) (09/29/89)
What is it about people who have the word "engineer" in their title or
on their diploma that makes them so insulting to the rest of us?
So far, everything that people have said that engineers *do* is something that
lots of other people *do*, too. Most people "design" their software,
"test it", "document it" and so on. Do some of you really believe
that engineers have some sort of lock on good sense.
Anecdotes will not help this discussion. I once know a programmer that...
proves only that you hang around with the wrong people.
Sure, it's true that a lot of Computer Science curriculums don't include
much of this stuff, but, surprise!, neither do many engineering programs. This
is applied stuff specific to a particular job, and thus better left to
on the job training.
MY MAIN POINT
Don't insult me with a lot of unsubstatiated claims about how engineers
are superior to others.
leeHm-dr-kz_The_Gnome@tcom.stc.co.uk (Hm-dr-kz_The_Gnome) (10/02/89)
In article <89272.091121UH2@PSUVM.BITNET> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >What is it about people who have the word "engineer" in their title or >on their diploma that makes them so insulting to the rest of us? > >So far, everything that people have said that engineers *do* is something that >lots of other people *do*, too. Most people "design" their software, >"test it", "document it" and so on. Do some of you really believe >that engineers have some sort of lock on good sense. To generalise: Engineers, particularly British Engineers, suffer from a massive feeling of inadequacy, primarily caused by the abominable torture that is their educational process and the poor rewards that come after. Inferiority complexes are normally manifested in irrational contempt for others and a superficial feeling of superiority. The myth that "Software Engineering" is superior to the way "ordinary" programmers do things is simply an example of a wider loathing for professions/ideas/things that the typical Engineer is too limited to understand. For example, the hatred ( perhaps to strong a word) of the Engineer for Accountants and Lawyers, whose work the Engineer despises as being easy and who are paid far better for this "easy work." >MY MAIN POINT > >Don't insult me with a lot of unsubstatiated claims about how engineers >are superior to others. > > lee I agree. As someone with the word "Engineering" in my degree I loathed studying with a bunch of miserable, inarticulate, immature pratts who moaned incessantly about how easy other degrees were and about the relatively low pay, status etc of the profession. Just look at any of the "learned" journals' letters pages to see the same old, boring arguements trotted out. There is only one answer: if you don't like it do something else. Unfortunately the type of person affected by these feelings ( which I am convinced are based on inadequacy ) prefers to moan than do anything constructive about it. A Software Engineer. p.s. (Disclaimer) This posting is of course based on a massive generalisation of the typical Engineer, any similarities to any person dead or living is purely unintentional.