It's about nurturing empathy and socializing behaviour. There's also some materials on how to counter natural anxiety (new foods/new people/new experiences) by forcing controlled exposure.
From my own experience having a child with my wife (an engineer as well) reading up on all the materials. Having and maintaining a trust-bond with your child is the most important, especially when you realize there is lots of bad advice out there related to baby sleep.
Essentially, the first 6 months your baby is too "stupid" to cry for nothing but basic needs like:
1/ too warm
2/ too cold
3/ hungry
4/ thirsty
5/ tired (need sleep)
6/ oversensitive (too much light/noise)
7/ wet diapers
8/ pain (sickness/teething/diaper rash)
Afterwards she/he can start to get into habits like waking up for some breastmilk while it's possible to go without. But babies are pretty flexible and can adopt a new routine within 3 days of enforcing that routine.