# Are We Really Engineers? by Hillel Wayne

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Are We Really Engineers? by Hillel Wayne and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A well-researched article series asking whether software development is really engineering. Readers found it educational and its conclusion surprising. No criticisms were recorded.

## Why people recommend it

- Addresses whether programming counts as engineering (2 comments): "The conclusion was that yes, a lot of what we do as software engineers is engineering." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45798700)) "Great series about whether programming is “engineering” or not" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45853311))
- Well-researched writing (2 comments): "Hillel Wayne wrote a really excellent well researched article about software engineering" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50274988)) "Hillel Wayne addresses well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50172696))
- Educational and surprising insights (2 comments): "It really surprised me when I read it first time!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683744)) "very educational, especially part 1" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47112192))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grug-brained-developer.md): 13 recommend
- [Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/choose-boring-technology.md): 11 recommend
- [The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitter-lesson.md): 10 recommend
- [Things You Should Never Do by Joel Spolsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/things-you-should-never-do.md): 10 recommend
- [The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/illustrated-transformer.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Are We Really Engineers? by Hillel Wayne", https://hackerapproved.com/p/are-we-really-engineers/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).