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by neilv 857 days ago
> Unfortunately, that's how the competitive market works.

That's how some people think the competitive market works. It's not universal.

Which is why I just contradicted that, and called to not encourage those beliefs.

Put loosely, half the job of an engineer is to tell the truth.

What I think you're characterizing is a corporate bullshit shoveler who just wants to go through the bullshit motions to get a paycheck.

I really don't want some impressionable junior engineers to see multiple people on HN encouraging lying.

I do not want to wade through that, to separate the merely misled junior engineers, from the hopeless anti-engineers.

> You are more than capable of withdrawing your candidacy.

And I do. But I'd prefer that the situation improve.

1 comments

I am pretty tolerant when it comes to not knowing things or time for learning new skills. With this fast changing industry i can not help it but tolerating.

But when i catch someone lying at least twice about something technical, i do my part to make sure the person is not hired or next to leave. There is no trust.

An engineer who can’t admit they don’t know something when it matters is actively harmful to the work of engineering.
This. I am genuinely excited when I am faced with a problem set where I don’t know something (e.g. need to research, explore, gain a skill, or otherwise educate myself) — seriously, it’s the best. The only thing better is learning (or being told) that I was wrong about something and then re-evaluating my belief/understanding stack in order to find and correct the error. I have such little patience for folks fronting or faking knowledge/expertise - it’s such a fucking waste of time for everyone else.
> An engineer who can’t admit they don’t know something when it matters is...

a bad engineer.