This might come across as a very strange question but is it uncommon to find engineers who did not enjoy school or think highly of the schools that they attended? I have encountered numerous computing and IT types over the years who did not enjoy school or had bad experiences at school but very few electrical or mechanical engineers.
I think you are wrong in saying that you can't practice engineering without considering its societal impact. Some of the problems we see are because the engineering has been carried out without such consideration, with autonomous cars possibly being an example (so by corollary, engineers should consider the societal impact). This is actually complicated by the fact that many of the consequences of the engineering are either not foreseen or are misjudged. I think it was Arthur Balfour (UK Prime Minister) who in the early years of the 20th Century proclaimed that the invention of the motor car would eliminate the problem of congestion on the streets of London.
I think you are wrong in saying that you can't practice engineering without considering its societal impact. Some of the problems we see are because the engineering has been carried out without such consideration, with autonomous cars possibly being an example (so by corollary, engineers should consider the societal impact). This is actually complicated by the fact that many of the consequences of the engineering are either not foreseen or are misjudged. I think it was Arthur Balfour (UK Prime Minister) who in the early years of the 20th Century proclaimed that the invention of the motor car would eliminate the problem of congestion on the streets of London.
