Engineers Explained. Funny but True

[Bearblastbeats]

I hope that most of my engineering peers on here will find this suitable.
As funny as it is, and at points where I literally "L'ed O L" it appears pretty accurate, well.. at least for me.

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~sums/texts/engineer.html

[gecko10x]

FRUGALITY

Engineers are notoriously frugal. This is not because of cheapness or mean spirit; it is simply because every spending situation is simply a problem in optimization, that is, "How can I escape this situation while retaining the greatest amount of cash?"

[ketchup]

Classic.  Describes us engineers to a T.

[Self-employed-swami]

SOCIAL SKILLS

Engineers have different objectives when it comes to social interaction.
"Normal" people expect to accomplish several unrealistic things from social interaction:

Stimulating and thought-provoking conversation
Important social contacts
A feeling of connectedness with other humans

In contrast to "normal" people, engineers have rational objectives for social interactions:
Get it over with as soon as possible.
Avoid getting invited to something unpleasant.
Demonstrate mental superiority and mastery of all subjects.

Describes a lot of technical people, me included, unless I make a specific effort :)

[arebelspy]

This was well done.  Thanks for sharing.

[Kaytee]

This describes several of my coworkers to a 'T' - mostly the electrical engineers, but civils seem to be a little more worldly. This is probably while we have been deemed "scientific oompa-loompas."

[WaxOnWaxOff]

I'm an electrical engineer and don't fit this description at all, which is probably why (1) I hate my career and (2) hope to FI/RE in October.

[Jamesqf]

Most of this is way off target.  The only fairly accurate points were the ones on frugality and clothing.

I think the real "tell" here is the section about Star Trek.  Most engineers would probably rather read a book than watch anything on TV, and if they did get talked into watching, would be unable to follow the plot because they'd be distracted by all the violations of basic physics, as for instance spacecraft that bank in space and explosions that go "boom" in a vacuum.  (Which is why I've never been able to sit through one of the Star Wars movies.)

[velocistar237]

I'm a match for everything but the ID Test, Star Trek, and Fashion sections, though I'm not much of a gadget lover.

for instance spacecraft that bank in space and explosions that go "boom" in a vacuum.

My wife and I started watching Battlestar Galactica, where I got sucked in by the [mostly] silent space flight sequences and the RCS thruster firings. Amazing how that's all it took to get me to watch what is essentially a soap opera.

[StarswirlTheMustached]

I'm a match for everything but the ID Test, Star Trek, and Fashion sections, though I'm not much of a gadget lover.

for instance spacecraft that bank in space and explosions that go "boom" in a vacuum.

My wife and I started watching Battlestar Galactica, where I got sucked in by the [mostly] silent space flight sequences and the RCS thruster firings. Amazing how that's all it took to get me to watch what is essentially a soap opera.

Yes! Though it waned after a while and I didn't follow the full series. B5 had decent spacefighter physics first, but their space battles make too much noise. ('it's all on the com bands' -- and that's some radio to survive long enough to transmit the sound of the ship blowing up!)

Honestly, though, this identity-obsession seems to me to be the real defining trait of Engineers, more than anything on that list. (since it holds for many technical folk, as said)

I'm in pure science, and I can say that on the whole, chemists, physicists, astronomers, biologists, etc. do the business and get on with their lives. Engineers as a class seem to have this unquenchable need to declare "We are like this and we arespecial."
(again, that's on the whole and as a class-- there are identity obsessed biochemists and engineers who pay no heed to any of that hoopla, but there does certainly seem to be a trend)

[Rich M]

There is a mistake in that test.  Apollo 13 was actually a triumphant time for engineers.

There are two phases of engineering design:

1. Initial design and production
2. Saving the day buy fixing the bad design.

[EMP]

I'm in pure science, and I can say that on the whole, chemists, physicists, astronomers, biologists, etc. do the business and get on with their lives. Engineers as a class seem to have this unquenchable need to declare "We are like this and we arespecial."
[/quote]

I think it's because we get so much less love than the other sciences.  See Sheldon v. Howard on the Big Bang Theory or Jacob at ERE for examples. 

[Southern Stashian]

I worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in the mid-atlantic, a civil engineer here in FL for 12 years and now live @ 15 miles south of Cape Canaveral, FL, smack in the middle of the NASA / government contractor engineering universe. In my dealing with engineers, I found the article to be a little off.

Many of the NASA engineers here on the Space Coast of FL are definitely not frugal, making high salaries for many, many years and then losing everything within a year when the Cape started its layoff process recently. My direct neighbor was on of those people, and it was hard to feel sorry for him as he was obviously good at his job (there 21 years), but he liked to flash his salary around and spent like there was no tomorrow. He recently foreclosed on his home and moved into his camper at a RV park, kinda sad to see.

With my position, I've personally met with thousands of engineers in their own homes and worked side by side with dozens of them over the years. While I truly respect their intensity when it comes to what they do, there is definitely a different swag to them when compared to the general public, although I find that civil engineers tend to be more laid back as a group then others.

It's funny to run into an engineer as you can instantly tell they are one without them saying anything. Their homes tend to be one extreme or another - clean, open and well organized or a complete hoarding situation. When making conversation, they tend to focus on the most unimportant, minuscule details instead of the bigger picture, sometimes making it frustrating to work with them.

My wife works in a dental office and says the same thing - she can tell as they come in with the way they are dressed and how they process every word of a conversation, sometimes over analyzing the conversation to the point of frustration. In the grand scheme of things though, I respect what they do and how they are wired.


www.theFIguy.com

[Rich M]

If you haven't seen this, it's classic.

[dragoncar]

You are definitely an engineer if you critique an "engineers explained" page written prior to 1996.

[NumberJohnny5]

Hrm, perhaps I should have been an engineer. I have learned to be less engineer-like as I've gotten older. My poor poor wife had to deal with a sometimes-working asterisk system. If she wasn't getting calls or couldn't call out, I'd just say something like "oh yeah, I just upgraded it but didn't have time to fully test non-critical functions like, oh, receiving calls. The wake-up function is working now, let me show you how that works...." Or the entertainment system that had a "smart" remote that was anything but. Eventually I learned that ease of use was just as important, or perhaps *gasp* more important than features.

I do over-analyze conversations sometimes, and take them too literally. I often feel like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory regarding socializing (yes yes, I know he's not an engineer and would be rather peeved to be compared to one). Socializing can be a big series of if/then programming. Ok, you just informed me that *bad thing happened*. Social convention dictates that I say something comforting at this point. Run some phrases through the simulator; that could be misconstrued...that might not be helpful...they probably don't want to hear that at this point...oh, this could work, no downsides predicted, we'll use that. Or...oh, you have invited our son to a birthday party. Social convention dictates that a present is necessary as payment, even though anyone directly asked would state otherwise. Look up the party location, see the cost of admission, make sure gift at least looks to have cost a similar amount to what was paid.

At least I can see the big picture instead of just focusing on tiny aspects of it. That's come in handy.

[Nords]

You are definitely an engineer if you critique an "engineers explained" page written prior to 1996.

... and without realizing that some of us may have already critiqued it at least twice before.