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.

    • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      92·
      18 hours ago

      Even “software engineer” is a bit sketchy. Should testers start calling themselves “Software doctors”? Lol

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        18 hours ago

        I’m ambivalent. I don’t really care about titles generally, but at least software engineer clearly isn’t anything else.

        That said, while the term software engineer is a lost cause, I wouldn’t be opposed to some comparable, regulated title where the person has to sign off on code bases and is responsible for major flaws. Obviously you wouldn’t use that as a barrier for every piece of code, but as a requirement for handling personal information on a certain scale? (Obviously it would be pointless until you also regulated intentional sharing of information a hell of a lot better, but still.)