- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
Crossposted from https://beehaw.org/post/24258253
This week, meet a reader we’ll Regomize as “Wilson” who once worked as the boss of a welding shop attached to an engineering consultancy.
Wilson set the scene by telling us this story came from the early 1980s, when AutoCAD was replacing drawing boards.
“We had a new structural engineer who those of us in the shop quickly identified as an idiot with a degree,” Wilson wrote.
One day, said idiot decided that the computers used to run AutoCAD needed to be cleaned and that the welding shop was the place to do the job.
As an engineer, a lot of engineers do a lot of dumb stuff.
Part of it is that a lot of engineers don’t think through the implications of their design. Part of it is that a lot of engineers coast by on the equivalent of copying other people’s code. Part of it is that budgets for projects are so compressed that you need a high performer to get it done on budget and getting that high performer in this case isn’t always viable. Part of it is that you need someone smart enough to do the job and dumb enough to not go for a higher pay position in another field.
Thank you for this. I agree 100% with this analysis. Working with an experienced engineer who understands that copy and paste doesn’t make sense in the real world is a game changer. A engineer who understands the intricacies of assembly, local code, maintenance and customization we deal with in the field are complex and require feedback from the people who do this job for a living are so much better to work with. I do understand there’s a lot of dumb tradies as we have a lot of nepotism and ignorance in the trades but there’s a pool of smarter people who absolutely appreciate a competent engineer