Musk is a huge jerk. Period.

[ahhell]

He may want to reconsider moving to Texas if he wants to call himself an engineer.

https://engineers.texas.gov/downloads/enf_pub.pdf

Those sorts of rules on apply to the type of engineer you claim to be. They're mostly the same in most every state.

He can call himself an Engineer just not a Civil, Mechanical, etc.

Edit to add, I'm late to the game on that but Smart Cookie is more correct than Dr Keith on this one, either that, or Texas is even more screwy than I thought.

b) Except as provided by Subsection (f), a person may not, unless the person holds a license
issued under this chapter, directly or indirectly use or cause to be used as a professional,
business, or commercial identification, title, name, representation, claim, asset, or means of
advantage or benefit any of, or a variation or abbreviation of, the following terms:

(1) “engineer”;
(2) “professional engineer”;
(3) “licensed engineer”;
(4) “registered engineer”;
(5) “registered professional engineer”;
(6) “licensed professional engineer”; or
(7) “engineered.”
(c) Except as provided by Sub

Actually, literal interpretation of that could be that Dr Keith is correct. More likely it would only be pursued if Some who was not licensed in TX uses "engineer" as an official title. If its on his business card or advertising, he could be in trouble.

 

[Ziggurat]

Actually, literal interpretation of that could be that Dr Keith is correct. More likely it would only be pursued if Some who was not licensed in TX uses "engineer" as an official title. If its on his business card or advertising, he could be in trouble.

I suspect trying to prohibit more casual uses of the descriptor run into 1st amendment problems. I know of one case where that's exactly what happened:

https://ij.org/press-release/oregon-engineer-wins-traffic-light-timing-lawsuit/

This might not be identical to Musk's situation, but it is an example of restrictions on the use of the title of "engineer" being unconstitutional.

 

[ahhell]

I suspect trying to prohibit more casual uses of the descriptor run into 1st amendment problems. I know of one case where that's exactly what happened:

https://ij.org/press-release/oregon-engineer-wins-traffic-light-timing-lawsuit/

This might not be identical to Musk's situation, but it is an example of restrictions on the use of the title of "engineer" being unconstitutional.

I was aware of that story, I didn't realize how close it was do this situation, I thought they were claiming he was practicing "transportation engineering" without a license.

I'm amused at how many of my fellow engineers ignore the aspect of licensure that is basically just a guild trying to keep wages up. They often totally buy into its all about public safety.

Anyrate, you're correct, if TX were to try an prosecute musk for misusing "engineer", they'd almost certainly loose in court.

I still think that most states generally just protect more limited titles, "professional engineer" is typical along with specific sorts of engineers; Civil, Mech, Structural, Electrical, etc. And often only for specific sorts of work.

Amusingly, my Engineers license in CA is issued by the same State agency that issued my security guard license, total derail at this point, but you can look up my unarmed security guard license that was issued 25 years ago and expired 20 years ago and see if I did anything bad. A cop that killed some dude in some other city, not so much.

I'm totally going to count this as continuing education for my TX license, along with technical hours, they require an hour a year of legal education regarding the laws that govern my profession.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Does Musk even refer to himself as an engineer? I’ve never thought of him as self deprecating.

 

[ZiprHead]

Does Musk even refer to himself as an engineer? I’ve never thought of him as self deprecating.

It depends. Does he wear a dickie?

 

[Donal]

half the network engineers I've met in my life haven't even had a bachelor's degree, but I digress.

If you worked for Elon Musk and someone asked you to go on the record about how smart is, what would you say? It's like another "billionaire" who marketed himself as having a "very good brain". Lots of people who were paid by him telling us how smart he was in public.

 

[plague311]

half the network engineers I've met in my life haven't even had a bachelor's degree, but I digress.

I seriously hate when people use the "network engineer" line. I'm a networking guy too, we're not engineers in any way, shape or form.

 

[ahhell]

half the network engineers I've met in my life haven't even had a bachelor's degree, but I digress.

If you worked for Elon Musk and someone asked you to go on the record about how smart is, what would you say? It's like another "billionaire" who marketed himself as having a "very good brain". Lots of people who were paid by him telling us how smart he was in public.

Time was you could become a legit engineer by apprenticeship. College more or less just replaced an equal amount of time of practice. You could get a degree from an accredited college or work for an engineer doing engineering stuff for four years.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I seriously hate when people use the "network engineer" line. I'm a networking guy too, we're not engineers in any way, shape or form.

Heh. My last six job titles have all included the word "analyst", and the only analysis I've done in any of them is picking apart the reasons why I'm not any kind of analyst. I think it's a problem of modern technology: so many of us have jobs that never existed until recently, so there are no simple terms in our centuries-old languages to describe them. In my grandparents' youth, pretty much every job could be described using a single noun: farmer, soldier, doctor, butcher, grocer, mailman. (You try explaining to a man born in 1913 what the technical quality review co-ordinator does for a publishing company specializing in academic directories on CD-ROM. I've tried it. He concluded I was a newspaper reporter, somehow.) So now we have all these vague generic terms for job titles applied to jobs that are either themselves vague and fuzzy or else too specialized to explain without needing a paragraph.

 

[plague311]

Heh. My last six job titles have all included the word "analyst", and the only analysis I've done in any of them is picking apart the reasons why I'm not any kind of analyst. I think it's a problem of modern technology: so many of us have jobs that never existed until recently, so there are no simple terms in our centuries-old languages to describe them. In my grandparents' youth, pretty much every job could be described using a single noun: farmer, soldier, doctor, butcher, grocer, mailman. (You try explaining to a man born in 1913 what the technical quality review co-ordinator does for a publishing company specializing in academic directories on CD-ROM. I've tried it. He concluded I was a newspaper reporter, somehow.) So now we have all these vague generic terms for job titles applied to jobs that are either themselves vague and fuzzy or else too specialized to explain without needing a paragraph.

That's why I'm glad I'm married. I don't feel bad when the eyes of the person that just asked me what I do for a living glaze over as I explain my job to them, because I'm not trying to impress anyone anymore.

That being said, now I just say "I do networking" and it's enough to scare them away from asking more questions. They just say, "Oh that must be fun." Little do they know....

 

[mumblethrax]

I seriously hate when people use the "network engineer" line. I'm a networking guy too, we're not engineers in any way, shape or form.

I feel the same way about "software engineer". I've refused the title whenever I've been given a choice.

But whether or not Musk is an engineer will depend entirely upon what someone means by 'engineer' and how he spends his days. I must confess that I don't give two ***** about either of those. It's more important for me to say that he's a narcissistic edgelord ****-wit who suffers from a chronic inability to recognize that expertise is domain-specific. I mean, the man discovered "420" jokes in his 40s, and thinks they're hilarious. What more needs to be said.

 

[Donal]

maybe he engineered those hair plugs.

 

[3point14]

IMHO, this explains Musk. He's a guy who is good maybe very good at one thing(I'm not entirely sure what that one thing is) so he thinks he's good at everything else and he used to have a bunch of fan boys who thought so too.

I think this is accurate. It's a particular kind of Dunning Kruger (yes, I know it's overused) that applies to people who are really smart and well educated in one area and therefore believe that other areas that are, to them, obviously inferior, are easily understood, after all, it can't be as difficult as their speciality...

 

[3point14]

I don't understand these blanket bans for remote working - I mean why not do what is most efficient? I suppose in most cases some sort of a flexible combination would be best: home working is very good for many tasks that require concentration and quiet - and in some cases it's essential that you are physically in the same place with your team.

People who own offices want rent?

 

[Dr. Keith]

maybe he engineered those hair plugs.

Nah, the panel gaps are too tight.

 

[mumblethrax]

maybe he engineered those hair plugs.

His one unequivocal engineering achievement is turning Steve Jobs' reality distortion field generator up to 11.

 

[Donal]

I think he should also get credit for making BMW drivers look less insufferable when compared to Tesla drivers

 

[ahhell]

I think he should also get credit for making BMW drivers look less insufferable when compared to Tesla drivers

I laughed.

 

[ZiprHead]

I think he should also get credit for making BMW drivers look less insufferable when compared to Tesla drivers

As a BMW driver