Understanding Engineers

[cshubhra]

Well @mso489 ’s friend gave the most rational speech - I would have done the same

When I am old I will only have three priorities

1. How to get pay for my medical bills
2. How to pursue my interests now that I am retired
3. How to pamper grandkids and help children

All three require money management skills, and for most at that age would be managing social security money (Unless, like many Americans they have not managed a significant nest egg)

And … most of the stereotypes are true to some extent

 

[renfield]

Now there's a born engineer.

Who knows in 2nd grade they want to be an aircraft structural analyst???

It started when my dad took me to an air show when I was in first grade. For some reason I was utterly fascinated with how airplanes are put together. They were built nothing like cars and that caught my eye.

My dad was an aviation mechanic and had helped build the Gemini capsules so there might be a hereditary component.

 

[sablebrush52]

Foil Air Bearing, Patent No. US3366427A. Very ingenious. That must have opened up a world of possibilities for designers and engineers?

It became a huge product with multiple applications. Unfortunately, at the time Pop invented it, all he got was a paycheck. Anything you did, whether in the office, the lab, or at home, belonged to the company. The idea of employee rewards for ingenuity was completely foreign.

 

[sablebrush52]

The graduate with an Arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?

Or, he's ordering a restorative breakfast after having spent a tumultuous night with three super models who came onto him during the triumphant opening night of his exhibit at the Venice Biennial.

 

[gamzultovah]

Or, he's ordering a restorative breakfast after having spent a tumultuous night with three super models who came onto him during the triumphant opening night of his exhibit at the Venice Biennial.

True. But enough about you…?

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

It became a huge product with multiple applications. Unfortunately, at the time Pop invented it, all he got was a paycheck. Anything you did, whether in the office, the lab, or at home, belonged to the company. The idea of employee rewards for ingenuity was completely foreign.

My grandfather had about 6 patents for one of the Big 3, including the seat stitching that is still somewhat used today.

While heir to the brains (well, sometimes ... I'm still just a dumb line cook at heart), the monetary rewards for ingenuity didn't exist.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

You all need to realize it's a struggle for us engineers to constantly have to dumb things down in order to communicate with the rest of the world.

 

[OzPiper]

I have a son who is an industrial designer who has just completed an engineering degree. Which he was able to do because he had the foresight to marry a girl who earns considerably more than he does.

His latest project was to install a prefabricated veggie bed - essentially a corrugated steel framework which only needed to be filled with soil and seedlings. Several weeks later, he has had to dig up an existing flower bed, re-pave the entire backyard, tried to reposition an existing shrub( (but failed because it was too large to dig up). It. is still uncompleted.

When he was in primary school, his class was asked to design a can crusher. His elaborate device necessitated several trips to the hardware store and a couple of hundred dollars in tools and bits and pieces of material. It would have been a lot cheaper to have bought him a wooden mallet or a pair of job-nailed boots. Partially my fault for not vetting his design before he started the task.

I wonder if that's because he is an engineer, or because of his part-Irish genes ?

 

[Brendan]

You all need to realize it's a struggle for us engineers to constantly have to dumb things down in order to communicate with the rest of the world.

Say that again, but with less words and more simplicity please.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Say that again, but with less words and more simplicity please.

Be thankful we tolerate morons.

 

[gamzultovah]

 

[Maierar]

You know how to tell the extroverted engineer at a party: He’s the one looking at someone else’s shoes.

 

[sablebrush52]

You all need to realize it's a struggle for us engineers to constantly have to dumb things down in order to communicate with the rest of the world.

Pop never did that. He expected people to be capable of following what he was explaining.
When I was a kid Pop would occasionally show me what he was designing while explaining the principles and specs of the design.
When I opted for a career in the arts Pop was horrified until he saw my first check from Disney.
But, the lessons and the procedural logic stuck, which has been immensely helpful over the years when I needed to design systems and pipelines for the productions I worked on. That knack for getting things to work is what got me assigned to supervising, most recently on Harley Quinn.
I tend to think systematically when on a show. I’m most definitely the son of an engineer.

 

[gamzultovah]

Pop never did that. He expected people to be capable of following what he was explaining.
When I was a kid Pop would occasionally show me what he was designing while explaining the principles and specs of the design.
When I opted for a career in the arts Pop was horrified until he saw my first check from Disney.
But, the lessons and the procedural logic stuck, which has been immensely helpful over the years when I needed to design systems and pipelines for the productions I worked on. That knack for getting things to work is what got me assigned to supervising, most recently on Harley Quinn.
I tend to think systematically when on a show. I’m most definitely the son of an engineer.

Was your father also a pipe smoker?

 

[sablebrush52]

Was your father also a pipe smoker?

Nope. He had the occasional cigarette, more often cigars, Cubans naturally, but he was a light to moderate smoker.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

horrified until he saw my first check from Disney.

Wait, Disney actually paid someone well? Ha ha, in all of the people I know that worked for Disney, including my wife, who was in charge of visual merchandising at Disney World, getting paid well never crossed their lips, ha ha.

 

[Andriko]

'Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in shit. After an hour you realize the pig likes it.'

 

[sablebrush52]

Wait, Disney actually paid someone well? Ha ha, in all of the people I know that worked for Disney, including my wife, who was in charge of visual merchandising at Disney World, getting paid well never crossed their lips, ha ha.

Though I was getting straight scale, I suspect that the studio paid better than the theme park operations. Plus I was working a ton of overtime that even went into "golden time" when I had to clock more than 12 hours a day. It definitely added up.
In the 1990's, after the success of films like Beauty and The Beast and The Little Mermaid, Disney really begin throwing money at the artists making those films, as much as 4 times scale and HUGE signing bonuses. That all came to a crashing end in the early 2000's when their films stopped raking in the same box office due to the audience's taste for CGI. 2D took a nose dive.

 

[giacomo]

I have a good friend who is an engineer, and he owns a company that builds bridges. As much as he loves what he does, he tells me the most fun of the job is watching the old bridges being blown-up.

 

[pantsBoots]

A beautiful, naked woman was laying on the bed and at the other end of the room stood two men, an engineer and a mathematician. The lady says, "OK. Every step you take can cover half the distance between you and me. First one who gets to me can have me."

Immediately, the mathematician cries out in anguish, "This is impossible! We'll never get there!"

The engineer looks at him, takes 10 considered steps and says, "This will work just fine."

And then he took one more step, for belt and suspenders!