[sevensor]

As someone who holds degrees in Real Engineering, I don’t care what computer programmers call themselves. I agree that most of the time, Software Engineer is an aspirational title, but you could say that about a fair number of electrical engineers too. You’re just not close enough to the field to see what marginal competence looks like. For that matter, Doctor was once an aspirational title for physicians, having been reserved for those licensed to give instruction in church doctrine. My point being, it’s fine. Nobody is ever going to confuse a software engineer for a real engineer, any more than you’re going to ask an MD about the nature of the Trinity.

[austin-cheney]

> For that matter, Doctor was once

In that case what would it take for Software Engineer to become more than aspirational?

[withinboredom]

IIRC, Australia has actual licensing to call yourself a "software engineer." I assume you'd need actual laws passed to regulate the industry.

[sevensor]

Eventually our understanding of the term will evolve to match its use, which is my point with the Doctor anecdote. Don’t try to fight the evolution of language; you may as well stand with Canute by the sea, yelling at the tide. No more did Victorian prescriptivists end the splitting of the infinitive.