Is Software Engineering Real Engineering?
summary
Interviews with 17 engineers across six disciplines and 12 recorded hours produce a concrete claim: software counts as engineering — 15 of 17 crossover professionals say yes. Evidence includes a 2014 integer overflow that blocked ~6,000 emergency calls, the 737 Max reliance on flight‑stabilizing software after nacelle changes, and hardware shipped with last‑minute patches; tools discussed include formal methods and TLA+, finite‑element simulation, and rapid CI deploys (one workflow cut to ~10 minutes). The clearest exportable win is version control and its tooling.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:50Is software development a branch of engineering?
- 4:40Let's talk to engineers
- 5:133 questions
- 6:04First Q: Are we really engineers?
- 17:54Second Q: How similar are we to traditional engineering?
- 32:26Third Q: What can we learn from each other?
- 34:28What can we teach?
- 36:45Version control
- 37:50Conclusion
- 39:07Outro
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