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Comment by mrleinad | Hacker News Reader

So, the new thing is that we're going to call everyone an engineer?

Carpenter -> Wood engineer

Tailor -> Fabric engineer

Ceramist -> Clay engineer

See how dumb it looks? And maybe the field is too new to have a specific word for it, but calling it "engineer" diminishes the level of actual engineers.

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But doesn't an engineer's authority come their skill-set and not from peoples perception of them or their job title?

When you say diminished, are you are talking from a societal point of view?

Prompt Engineering is a fun title in a fast moving and interesting field. Everyone's taking it far too seriously.

I'm going off to become a Clay Engineer, that sounds fun!

A Profession Engineer’s authority comes from their education and experience. When they stamp a design or plans, they are putting their reputation and livelihood on the line. If they are negligent, they can be sued for malpractice and may be barred from working as an Engineer in their field. If their employer asks them to do something unethical, they have a duty to refuse.

I personally think it’s worth reserving certain titles for qualified practitioners. If you want to call yourself a Doctor, Lawyer, or Engineer, I think that should mean something.

That's also very US-centric.

In many countries it's more a title associated to education and specific degrees from specific schools than a license to practice some professional organisation could revoke.

While, from my limited knowledge, doctors and lawyers both seem to have some sort of license and controlling body in most, if not all, countries.

> That’s also very US-centric.

There are quite a few jurisdictions where some Engineer title is protected:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_en...

I haven't counted many this page where there is a regulating body that could take away a license to practice as an engineer.

The UK seems to discriminate on a per discipline basis. Canada apparently is ambiguous, with self-regulating bodies but courts dismissing cases regarding job titles. Germany has one, but only for civil engineers (still according to the wikipedia page).

Still only relying on this wikipedia page, there are on the other hand many countries where although the title is protected, it simply requires one to have studied a certain number of years (Poland), to have completed a specific degree (Brazil, Chile, Germany), or a specific degree in one of a few select higher-education schools (France, Turkey).

This is the wrong direction.

Go this way, instead:

Engine-maker Road-maker Trend-maker Fabric-maker Clay-maner Wood-maker Makeup-maker Book-maker Law-maker

Each school of making shall also have ranks: Vice Chief of Book-making, Novice Fabric-maker, Treasurer of Makeup-making et cetera

Calling carpenters wood engineers is pretty much warranted. There should be no engineering police that determines which jobs are allowed to carry the prestigious engineer title. Software engineering was also ridiculed for the longest time by “real” mechanical engineers.

As a former mechanical engineer I’m not sure how common that was. Computer Scientist was/is a common alternative but that’s somewhat of an artifact of CS often being associated with math departments.

I don't see why we have to take and muddle someone else's word, "engineer" doesn't have inherently prestigious syllables, the word sounds good when someone says it at a party because the job itself is actually hard or whatever.

If software development (or even "programming"!) is the same, the same thing will happen. If not, any other words we steal will lose their shine too and engineers will start calling themselves something else to get it back.

The etymology is more from “social engineering,” particularly if you model talking to a chatbot as a chat.

(Unintentionally?) ironic, given that "entomology" is the study of bugs...

Fixed. You know what I meant.

And by pointing it out, they ruined it for the rest of us!

Sorry, this was already on its way out from the very beginning with the term "software engineer".

Outside of tech, being an actual engineer involves universal standards, certifications and the onus and responsibility of failures that the deregulated libertarian paradise of the tech world is impossible to implement.

Actual engineers go through rigorous testing, certification and have universal standards that uphold them to meet these standards regardless of business pressure.

Until the tech and software world have anywhere near that level of scrutiny by public institutions (good luck, all you will hear is the screams of "communism!") then frankly its already looked dumb ever since developers were even called "engineers" to begin with.

The joke about self-aggrandizing "X engineer" titles is very old. On "Mama's Family," the main character is essentially a homemaker, but in one episode she calls herself a "domestic engineer" to make it sound more impressive. That episode is from 1987.

Carpenter and tailor are basically unique words. If you never heard of the word carpenter, you'd have no idea what it meant.

It is very rare I think for completely new words to emerge nowadays.

Prompt engineer is descriptive and you can guess its meaning.

This is just how language evolves, stop gatekeeping it. Most engineers these days have never been near an actual engine, and nor do they have any need to.

The real problem is those 18th century jerks who stole "engine" to refer to mechanical devices instead of the original meaning of "skill" or "craft".

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