So this came up in a slack and then i had a long expansion and someone asked me to make it a post so they could link it to people and well ok fair enough
It’s gonna be heck of low effort post though
Technical positions can be thought of in the following model. That's not to say that they should be, or that this model is good. It is a model, don't mistake it for the reality.
- Scientists are primarily focused on expanding the capabilities of the field and finding novel ways to cause novel things to happen.
- Engineers are primarily focused on turning theory and high-level practical guidance into functional machines and infrastructure.
- Mechanics are primarily focused on whether the machine or infrastructure produces the desired outcome.
- Scientists mostly don't care about what the Mechanics think about their efforts, and only kinda care about what Engineers think.
- Engineers frequently are frustrated at the abstract nature of Scientist efforts, and often deeply horrified at the ways Mechanics get things done.
- Mechanics mostly don't give any fucks about whatever Scientists are doing, and often think Engineers spend way too much time caring about the how instead of the result.
- Scientists all-but require formal education to perform in that lane.
- Engineers usually have formal education, but it could be a deep trade school instead of academia.
- Mechanics are often self-taught through experimentation, but may have gone through trade school or academia.
- A Scientist was involved in figuring out how dead dinosaurs can make energy (and murder us all).
- An Engineer was involved in figuring out how to use that energy source to make efficient motion happen.
- A mechanic is involved when the damned thing breaks down.
- A coding Scientist is working on new algos, new crypto, fundamentally new ways of doing things.
- A coding Engineer is working on making things (based on science both old and new) run efficiently and smoothly and predictably.
- A coding Mechanic is working on shipping the fucking feature and really doesn't care what the Engineer lead thinks about their code smell.
Unfortunate truism in this model's exhibition IRL:
- The layers tend to operate the same way drivers do about other drivers' chosen speeds.
- The layer above you is lost is lost in the fucking clouds.
- The layer below you refuses to see the big picture.
These things are actually about APPROACH not background. My computery shit is 100% shade-tree mechanic. My management theory is fucking science. My org building is some deeply skilled engineering. In each of them I'm using different approaches because that's what mostly works well for me. These are tools, not labels to be use to confine and define people.