Hypothesis: Engineering is Subjective

In the past, I used to think that my work, engineering, was something that could be easily replaced, something that “someone else could do even if I were to die.” However, recently I’ve come to realize that this is not the case. There are actually products where “if that person dies, the product dies with them,” and surprisingly, there are quite a few such cases. In fact, it seems to be the majority.

Certainly, when it comes to ability, there are many products that, in terms of capabilities, could have been created by someone else if they had tried. And I believe that there are actually few products that can’t be created by anyone else in terms of ability. However, there is no significant difference externally between “someone else couldn’t create it” and “someone else didn’t want to create it.” The direction of interest and passion is an extremely personal aspect, and engineering requires a great deal of interest and passion. That’s why these situations arise. And without interest and passion, the deepest aspects of that product remain unseen, making proper succession rare.

Unless it’s an extremely popular open-source project or something similar, it’s likely that there are many products that, upon the death of the creator (both physically and metaphorically), end up dying because no one with interest and passion is found. These are “that person’s” products, and they cannot be easily replaced. Engineers should take pride in the work they passionately pursue, and they should not assume that it can be easily handed over to someone else.