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Comment by dsl | Hacker News Reader

I really wish YC would do their part and start nuking all the DIY ventilators articles. I don't want to wait for homebuilt vents and intubation to start killing people before we put an end to this nonsense.

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It's a great illustration of why disaster coordinators want real engineers, not software engineers.

Programmers, just get out your checkbooks and stop trying to help.

What’s a “real engineer”? Railroad Engineer? Civil Engineer? Aerospace Engineer?

Probably someone with a PE license.

In this case, I think it means someone with the perspective to think things through at a systems level and relevant domain expertise.

So, a medical device engineer.

Someone that has at least passed the fundamentals of engineering exam, preferably with a PE. Then we could guarantee a minimum understanding of the relevant fields.

Don't be cute. Professional Engineer / Chartered Engineer is a "real" engineer. A random coder calling themselves an "engineer" doesn't make them qualified to design and implement life-critical safety systems.

Some countries have that norm, but in the United States, PE licensing is fairly unusual, due to rules allowing corporations to have one PE sign off on the work of a lot of engineers. As a result, even in the case of critical medical equipment, most of the real engineers who scoped, designed, and tested the product are not PEs.

Often the PE is more of a lawyer than an engineer. They typically do have an engineering degree, but are years out from any hands-on engineering work. They do final legal sign-off, and are knowledgeable about statutes and insurance policies, but rely on people with more recent technical experience to do any technical work.

"Some countries have that norm, but in the United States, PE licensing is fairly unusual, due to rules allowing corporations to have one PE sign off on the work of a lot of engineers."

Which is significantly stronger than the state of software engineering.

Sure, I could imagine that is the case in fields like nuclear engineering. All the PEs I know are smart and have technical chops. Though, most of my PE friends are fairly young (early 30s) and are maybe on their way to that destination.

There is such a thing as Software Engineers, but most developers are not that.

I assume Boeing engineers are enough

Engineer who pAssed the FE exam here. 9 years design experience. I can do math.. what's needed?

I agree programmers are not on this level.

Why 'level'? Its a different body of knowledge.

Tons of programmers are on that level - in fact, probably more developers at 'Engineering caliber' than any other Eng. discipline.

That said - the vast majority of developers are nowhere near that.

It's a really long tail.

I've previously expressed my concerns that the focus on ventilators will lead to a secondary pandemic of antibiotic resistant secondary infections. But I don't think "nuking" these articles helps. I think it is much better for them to make the front page and get appropriately criticized. That pattern seems to be actively fostering better articles making it to the front page.

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