I saw another person take issue with the term "software engineering" and I think that's fine, but I think we should all call ourselves "computer scientists" instead, because imo that's even more offensive
one time someone asked me what I do for a living and I said I'm an engineer, and then they asked me what kind and I said software, and then they just said "oh" with a little disappointment, and I've never claimed to be an engineer since then. If you say "programmer" instead nobody ever asks what kind, not even other programmers, and I think that's beautiful.
@aeva this reminds me of disputes from decades ago where the term software engineer ran into issues with longstanding legal rules built up around the term "engineer"..
I think the profession ran faster than governments noticed, and by the time they started to say something the term was already too far in use, so not being able to put that horse back in the barn, they had to change the law instead.
(Or just ignore the laws and leave them unenforced. It probably varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction)
Off the top of my head "technologist" might have been the existing term that best fit it, since that term is used similarly in the broader engineering world.
It doesn't have a good zing to it, though.
