Software vs. Engineering Discipline: Learn the Principle, Not Just the Tool
Learning a piece of software is frequently conflated with mastering an engineering discipline. Memorizing menus and buttons on CAD, EDA, or IDE tools turns someone into an interface operator; internalizing the underlying physical, mathematical, and algorithmic principles creates an engineer. This analysis examines the deep chasm between tool dependency and engineering discipline, and how to stay resilient when interfaces change.