4 ms·

> Technical people suffer from what I call "Engineer's Disease". We think because we're an expert in one area, we're automatically an expert in other areas. Jus

by zamnos 3y ago

> Technical people suffer from what I call "Engineer's Disease". We think because we're an expert in one area, we're automatically an expert in other areas. Just recognizing that helps. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10812804 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10812804

wakaru44 3y ago
you could also call it 'the halo effect'.
hnfong 3y ago
I think the more interesting question is why this symptom mostly happens to "engineers". I've seen enough engineers presume they can easily become experts in law; I haven't seen many lawyers presume they can easily become experts in engineering. Why?
- rsynnott 3y ago
  It's certainly not _just_ engineers; you see it in the hard sciences and medicine to an extent, as well. Someone recently posted a study purporting to show harm caused by masks to HN, say; while its authors didn't appear to include anyone with expertise in the relevant medical specialties, they did include a chemist and a veterinarian. And, if you're a fan of Matt Levine, you'll know that dentists stereotypically tend to think of themselves as being experts at high finance. But it definitely does seem to be especially pronounced with engineers. (NB. I am a software engineer, and not a sociologist, so, argh, this is potentially getting a bit meta.)
  - jimmydddd 3y ago
    Re: dentists. I have a few friends who are MD's who say they went into it to "help people," and that if they "just wanted to make money," they would have been "one of those tech CEO's." But when you look at how they run their offices and finances, you see that there is very little crossover between their medical skill into business. They just assume that they would be a successful CEO.
  - sn9 3y ago
    I've noticed it as a pretty widespread phenomenon for anyone who has the subjective experience of being competent and thinking that's enough to translate to other fields. Super common in hot takes on politics, medical contrarianism, etc. Though it's probably true that certain fields are more predisposed to it than others.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  IMO, there's a certain level of arrogance intrinsic to engineering: To build something new, you need a belief, first and foremost, that you can build it at all, and almost as importantly better. Weeding out all the people who don't have, at least to some degree, that belief, and you end up with a disproportionate fraction of people who think that way about everything.
  - Aerbil313 3y ago
    I can confirm I think this way about almost everything. Because I can’t see why I can’t be a lawyer, or a farmer, or a dentist given that I spend enough time to learn it.
deleted 3y ago
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by zamnos 3y ago

wakaru44 3y ago

you could also call it 'the halo effect'.

hnfong 3y ago

I think the more interesting question is why this symptom mostly happens to "engineers". I've seen enough engineers presume they can easily become experts in law; I haven't seen many lawyers presume they can easily become experts in engineering. Why?

rsynnott 3y ago
It's certainly not _just_ engineers; you see it in the hard sciences and medicine to an extent, as well. Someone recently posted a study purporting to show harm caused by masks to HN, say; while its authors didn't appear to include anyone with expertise in the relevant medical specialties, they did include a chemist and a veterinarian. And, if you're a fan of Matt Levine, you'll know that dentists stereotypically tend to think of themselves as being experts at high finance. But it definitely does seem to be especially pronounced with engineers. (NB. I am a software engineer, and not a sociologist, so, argh, this is potentially getting a bit meta.)
- jimmydddd 3y ago
  Re: dentists. I have a few friends who are MD's who say they went into it to "help people," and that if they "just wanted to make money," they would have been "one of those tech CEO's." But when you look at how they run their offices and finances, you see that there is very little crossover between their medical skill into business. They just assume that they would be a successful CEO.
- sn9 3y ago
  I've noticed it as a pretty widespread phenomenon for anyone who has the subjective experience of being competent and thinking that's enough to translate to other fields. Super common in hot takes on politics, medical contrarianism, etc. Though it's probably true that certain fields are more predisposed to it than others.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
IMO, there's a certain level of arrogance intrinsic to engineering: To build something new, you need a belief, first and foremost, that you can build it at all, and almost as importantly better. Weeding out all the people who don't have, at least to some degree, that belief, and you end up with a disproportionate fraction of people who think that way about everything.
- Aerbil313 3y ago
  I can confirm I think this way about almost everything. Because I can’t see why I can’t be a lawyer, or a farmer, or a dentist given that I spend enough time to learn it.

deleted 3y ago

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