I no longer build software; I now make furniture out of wood.
The client says: sorry I actually wanted the table legs to be be longer… And curved… And- wait, no, actually I think I’ll tell you more later
I want a table that 100 people can sit around that fits in your average living room. It should also be affordable and made of really high quality materials
Them: “I want one that looks exactly like this one on this website.”
Me: “Sure… but you can just get the one on the website, and it will be cheaper.”
Them: “Yeah, about that…”
What do you mean it’s going to take weeks? Can’t you just use that agile thingy?
There was a building site next to our office and I stood at the window and watched the workers. A colleague walked up next to me. We stood there in silence for a while.
Me: “Sometimes I wonder if I should just fuck it all and become a gardener.”
Him: “Me too.”
Me: “I’m serious.”
Him: “Me too.”
We briefly looked at each other with expressionless faces. In silence we watched some more. Then we went to the next meeting.
True story™.
I mean, that’s basically the main character’s arc in Office Space, right? Still rings true.
Can relate. With colleagues we have daydreamed about opening a bar, a bakery, a hostel on the beach, yet we’re all still here, pressing buttons to make the lights on the screen change.
I always thought about going to be a farmer. Then I watched some videos from farmers and realized they are also engineers.
A large faction of engineers, especially software-type engineers, have these types of hobbies.
I’m sitting here right beside the heirloom quality (compared to most furniture) coffee table I made in my garage with my nearly complete wood shop.
I make stuff in two ways in my day job. I design something and someone else makes it, or it’s just some idea as software.
Engineers are a type. We’re just wired differently from most other people.
So. Many. DIYer/maker/woodworker/machinist/car mechanic/etc. Youtubers are former engineers, especially software engineers.
Agreed.
I might also argue that those people are all still engineers.
Engineer just means “problem solver”. Everyone gets paid for solving problems.
The real question in my head is how far does this go?
Sometimes the problem is that these burgers need flipping. Protein disk translocation engineers? I’m cool with that.
I’d argue that engineering, like science, is a mindset. If science asks “what” things are, engineering asks “how” to do things
A more standard definition in my tenure in academia is that scientists solve problems because they want to know the answer. Engineers solve problems because they want the problem to be solved.
In any case, the difference is just, heh, academic.
I’m very much the latter.
