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Comment by saddestcatever | Hacker News Reader

Because "Software Engineering" isn't (currently) held to the same standards of certification, ethics, and peer review that other Engineering and Medical fields are. Maybe some day.

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Yeah, this.

...maybe?

On the one hand the idea that you can become a well-paid programmer starting from one of these bootcamps is almost insulting to me as someone who dedicated much of his life to the field.

On the other hand, a lot of people do it. I've worked with them. They don't all suck.

Have I wasted my life on trivialities?

What does my knowledge and, yes, mastery count for if Joe Bootcamp can solve Jane Businessman's problems with a few months of training and a bolus of javascript?

In my experience, you will be the one called in to fix it when Joe's solution goes pear shaped.

I didn't get a Computer Science degree to build web apps. I got it because I enjoyed learning about the field and technology. I build web apps to pay the bills

If these standards were required, would we have less hostile UI/UX, would we have less shady banner ad auctions, would there be less malware, etc? Not sure it would matter, especially since those standard requirements would only apply to the country in which they were enacted. Old eastern bloc countries would still have no problem filling the void. So essentially, the same bad actors would still act bad.

> would there be less malware, etc?

There would be MORE malware.

People who couldn't meet the high standards could find income in the lucrative field of malware.

And that's exactly the issuem Software Engineering is just as much engineering as anything else, requires the same quality and lessons in ethics, and nowadays costs more people their lives than many other forms of engineering.

The MCAS of the 737-MAX wasn't designed by mechanical or civil engineers ;)

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