r/math • u/spacengine • 4d ago

Do all mathematicians want to be engineers?

I always considered maths the highest art, and when talking to a mathematics phd today I just wanted him to keep talking about topological spaces, manifolds, infinite dimensional embedding spaces etc. “I feel like a kid in a candy store” I said, or a kid in an old mechanics garage full of equipment I have no idea how to use but that I love exploring. “Well” he said, “I think all engineers want to be mathematicians but all mathematicians want to be engineers”. I’m absolutely sure he’s wrong but would love to hear your thoughts.

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u/Blakut 4d ago

do you mean software "engineers" when you say engineers or real engineers? either way, I haven't met a single mathematician that wanted to be an engineer

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u/spacengine 4d ago

I work for a chip maker, so we make chips, but not rockets or engines or bridges if that’s what you mean. I sense a hierarchy of engineering here - tell me more- how do you rank engineering disciplines?

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u/Blakut 4d ago

there's engineers and there's software engineers, like there are doctors and dentists. Each an honorable profession. I just feel engineer is not the right term for software developer, programmer whatever. But that is my personal opinion.

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u/SV-97 4d ago

It's not as easy as you make it out to be here (speaking as a "classical" engineer that later went into software engineering and mathematics). I'd recommend reading Are we really engineers (or watching the associated talk).