"Engineer" sounds like kind of a moving target. The only "real" engineers design...engines. So it's worth asking what the actual value is of "engineering."
In my mind, there are two: making stuff, and tolerances.
Making stuff is magic. Most people reading this can sit down at a computer and formalize an idea such that the computer can do it. Most people can't do this. It is valuable for the same reason the ability to design a car or escalator or rocketship is valuable.
Tolerances is all about providing certain guarantees about the stuff you make. I think most developers could hit those guarantees...if they were ever verbalized. What, you want me to decrease memory usage by 50%? Actually, I probably can do it. At the very least, I can point you some academic papers as to why it's impossible.
But nobody has ever asked me to do that, ever (except in interview questions). I suspect my experience is common among developers.
So, from a "making-stuff" perspective, yeah, we're engineers. From a "tolerances" perspective, most of us aren't, but wouldn't have much trouble becoming them. It's just that no one actually wants that.
In my mind, there are two: making stuff, and tolerances.
Making stuff is magic. Most people reading this can sit down at a computer and formalize an idea such that the computer can do it. Most people can't do this. It is valuable for the same reason the ability to design a car or escalator or rocketship is valuable.
Tolerances is all about providing certain guarantees about the stuff you make. I think most developers could hit those guarantees...if they were ever verbalized. What, you want me to decrease memory usage by 50%? Actually, I probably can do it. At the very least, I can point you some academic papers as to why it's impossible.
But nobody has ever asked me to do that, ever (except in interview questions). I suspect my experience is common among developers.
So, from a "making-stuff" perspective, yeah, we're engineers. From a "tolerances" perspective, most of us aren't, but wouldn't have much trouble becoming them. It's just that no one actually wants that.