Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by cess11 22 days ago
If I must I call myself a software or systems developer. I make changes aimed at some improvement to software systems involving machines and people in a way that is more like a craft than engineering. In my view I'm closer to a plumber than someone with a degree in technical engineering. I take some inspiration from engineers, but unlike them I work in an environment where simulation can be as good as the real thing, because both are virtual, and simulation is exceedingly cheap. It is not when you're building an ocean going ship or a bridge or a nuclear reactor.

I can also tell my tools to automate my work once I understand it well enough.

One of my more senior colleagues at that company called himself a 'fixer', because to his understanding, what he did was fix things.