Engineers, Technologists, and Technicians — Three Distinct Practices
The Title Trap asks: what are we actually paying for? This essay answers it by defining three substantively different practices in knowledge work. The problem is not that people use “engineer,” “technologist,” and “technician” interchangeably—it is that we have made it impossible to call anyone anything else. I. The Profession That Lost Its Names In medicine, the distinction is clear and enforced by law. An MD and a Nurse Practitioner are both valuable. Both are trained professionals. They are not interchangeable. They have different training, different scopes of practice, different liabilities. The system is designed so you cannot confuse them. …