I don't agree with José's comments about engineers. Those I know spend a lot of time discussing and analysing why things break and how to improve them. I think that's one of the key things that differentiates an engineer from a mechanic or technician. Perhaps there are commercial reasons why that is not followed up with action, for example the cost if retooling an injection mold.

I do agree that most maker events are missing out by not including some of the more traditional skills. The RSA recently did some research into this.

And showed that makers and crafters often have different principles that they base their work on. The arts and crafts often having Luddite tendencies and avoiding modern tools and technologies. I’ve seen the opposite too with modern makers shunning hand tools even if they might be more appropriate. For example, Stuart from Tool Guyd discussing a wire management cube.

We see this in the model engineer community too. The model engineers are happy to use some very sophisticated mechanical devices but shun CNC and electronics. However it's not everyone who thinks like that with many modellers experimenting with 3D printers and CNC. Also the last couple of years the Model Engineer Show at Sanddown has incorporated a Makers area and there has been some cross over. Another area of overlap are "experimental engineers" I believe there are two clubs in the Uk with my local one being the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers. These people behave a lot like makers and have competitions, demonstrations and give training courses. They work with conventional machinery, CNC and exotic tools such as electrical discharge machining.

I think there is one key difference between Makers and Crafts and that is sharing. For makers, sharing experiences and ideas is the default. Makers often blog about what they have made and publish schematics, plans and code. Some even make tutorials and videos. Crafts people only seem to share things when they have established a good trust with others, so you have to be part of the clique. The technology helps makers here as beginners can download 3D models and print or cut them out without needing the skills to do the design themselves. I think many makers are self taught vs the face to face training that is commonly found with crafts.

So yes there are differences and commonality between makers, engineers and crafts. I believe all could benefit from shared experiences. But I don't agree that engineers don't have that curiosity of the other two, that's just something some people have.