This thread on Hacker News terrifies me

[Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa)]

On 08/31/2018 05:09 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> 
> It's precisely for this reason that the title "software engineer" makes
> me cringe on the one hand, and snicker on the other hand.  I honestly
> cannot keep a straight face when using the word "engineering" to
> describe what a typical programmer does in the industry these days.
> 

Science is the reverse-engineering of reality to understand how it 
works. Engineering is the practical application of scientific knowledge.

I don't know, maybe those are simplified, naive definitions. But I've 
long been of the opinion that programming is engineering...*if* and only 
if...you're doing it right.

Of course, my background is primarily from programming itself, not from 
an existing engineering field, so I certainly won't claim that what I do 
necessarily qualifies as "engineering", but it is something I try to 
aspire to, FWIW.