> The biggest difference I see between software developers and mechanical engineers is a way of thinking.
Can you give an example? Myself being a mechanical engineer who also turned to software development, the people I talk to from SW are used to dealing with large matrices and semi-complex math. Sure they don't know about modal analysis or Navier–Stokes equations, but the lack of a certain way of thinking I cannot recognize.
As the other comment and a few others have iterated, software guys don't have as much of a "measure twice, cut once" mentality. It's not so much about the math or technical knowledge, it's more of a mentality.
Let me put it this way - I've seen many times software engineers laugh when they encounter a funny bug or an output they didn't expect. I don't think I've ever seen an ME laugh when something breaks.
Can you give an example? Myself being a mechanical engineer who also turned to software development, the people I talk to from SW are used to dealing with large matrices and semi-complex math. Sure they don't know about modal analysis or Navier–Stokes equations, but the lack of a certain way of thinking I cannot recognize.