Comment by cen4 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cen4 | Hacker News Reader

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Well people have discovered you can make cash irrespective of the quality of tech you pump out.

Two routes have been discovered and milked to high heaven -

Financial engineering - this is where if you accumulate more capital and faster than the next guy you win. Add to that globalization ie arbitrage on interest rates/tax rates/forex/labor cost/rent/real estate/govt regulation in generating capital.

Demand engineering - related to capital raising - since attention is finite - who spends more on marketing/ads/pr captures more attention faster than the next guy.

The creatives/engineers/scientists haven't spent enough time coming up with a response to either. So they all end up dependent on the financial and demand engineers.

This will change with time as people come up with ways to respond.

I don't disagree but I think it's sad to see the word "engineering" used in this context. What you describe I would call highly optimized bullshit artistry.

Maybe the watering down of the term started with "social engineering". Engineers build things that do things and/or are built to last.

But then you're just changing who gets disparaged from a technical expert to an emotional one. If you're offended by the term engineering, may I suggest scheming? I think that would better convey the nefarious aspect of the term.

It started happening a long time before that. There was a popular meme in the 1980s where housewives humorously referred to themselves as “domestic engineers.”

This strikes as both optimistic and pragmatic. We do have reason to believe the current model is not permanent, and it is most empowering to believe we can play a role in crafting the new model.

Most people failed to make tech their own. They wanted the lazy ready-to-use solutions and now others determine the degrees of freedom they can have.

Honestly if you did make tech work for you, not too much has changed. But yes, since people always opt for the easy solution, more engineers will supply their demands.

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