Have you noticed just how many traditional engineers are just a pain in the ass? No sense of humor, no artistic ability or desire to embellish, and total sticklers for the rules as they see fit. Not. ONE. DEVIATION will be permitted.

And how many must be the authority on some subject matter of which they have little working knowledge?

Just my vent. Carry on, motherfuckers.

9/14/2009 3:18:19 PM

shut up

9/14/2009 3:19:53 PM

its probably because they are older and have been burnt when they were younger by working with someone and 'bending the rules'.

i run across these guys all the time.

this theory doesn't explain the lack of humor though.

9/14/2009 3:22:31 PM

define "traditional engineer"

until i started college an "engineer" operated a train

9/14/2009 3:22:59 PM

Ahhh...forget it. Fuck the lot of you. Good day.

9/14/2009 3:28:26 PM

when i took the ASVAB in high school it told me i should be an engineer and i was all like "naw, trains are so 19th century i'ma be a scientist"

9/14/2009 3:32:37 PM

Quote :

"[no] desire to embellish"

based on the number of engineers on TWW, I disagree with this.

9/14/2009 3:33:47 PM

like, the guys who drive trains?

9/14/2009 4:08:32 PM

I can has job?

9/14/2009 4:09:52 PM

Quote :

"until i started college an "engineer" operated a train"

Didn't engineering as an academic study appear sometime in the late 1800's? How old are you?

9/14/2009 4:12:19 PM

Quote :

"And how many must be the authority on some subject matter of which they have little working knowledge?"

Generally speaking, people that feel some inward need to be an authority on any subject matter are more often than not, not experts on that subject matter and are compensating for inadequacies in other areas of their lives.

I've had friends say that they were "Good with Electronics" , "Good with Military Facts" , "Good with Fill-in-the-Blank" Every single one of these people had MAYBE average, if not Below Average knowledge on the subject matter. However, since the subject matter was niche to begin with, this person could easily claim to be an expert on the subject and get away with it, simply because it was already obscure knowledge. These types of people are simply lying to themselves, don't get in the way, just let them continue to think they are closet-geniuses, because that's much funnier anyway.

More importantly, there is nothing that these individuals could provide to you, that google could not do just as well, if not better. This is the core reason why these people are idiots. This is the information age, where everything is a click away.

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 4:17 PM. Reason : -]

9/14/2009 4:12:55 PM

supposedly airplanes have been around for a long time too. but i didnt hear about them till i was like 3. doesnt mean i have to be 80 years old

9/14/2009 4:13:43 PM

^^ like 90% of my knowledge comes from the various cable education channels

good for cocktail parties... pretty useless otherwise

I'm a delicious chocolate easter bunny

...

OP, you're going to have to give us more info

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 4:18 PM. Reason : /.]

9/14/2009 4:16:28 PM

they probably have old man message boards complaining about the new recruits and how many things they assume in their work that arent good assumptions

9/14/2009 4:26:16 PM

gotta get the assumptions correct


jsut ask Mike Boles

9/14/2009 4:31:27 PM

oh come on now

sure most traditional engineers will allow at least one standard deviation

9/14/2009 4:31:39 PM

lol

9/14/2009 4:33:15 PM

6 sigma son

9/14/2009 4:33:54 PM

yeah i just took the progressive engineer exam i feel much better

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

9/14/2009 4:33:58 PM

I, too, made it up until college thinking that NASA employed way too many train operators.

9/14/2009 4:34:58 PM

I had the opposite issue in my last job. I was working with a bunch of non-engineering MBA's, they thought everything could just be pulled out of your ass and if it sounded right it was fine.

9/14/2009 4:35:43 PM

Quote :

"6σ son"

9/14/2009 4:36:27 PM

thanks jethro.

granny's a-callin fer ya

9/14/2009 4:37:12 PM

But the question is...

DOES THE PLANE TAKE OFF?

Traditional engineers are all in unanimous agreement that it does. No humor, no embellishment, NO DEVIATION from the rules.

FUCK THESE ENGINEERS!!!11

9/14/2009 4:38:08 PM

if you are outside with no overhead equipment.... do you still need a hard hat?

9/14/2009 4:53:55 PM

seconded to the OP. mainly to the sense of humor but the other stuff as well.

9/14/2009 4:59:30 PM

^^ Yeah.

Also zxappeal, I should feel your pain soon. I'm moving into an organization whose employee average age is like 53 or so. Should be a couple times where I get the whole "we've always done it this way and we're not about to do it different" spiel.

9/14/2009 5:05:18 PM

Quote :

""we've always done it this way and we're not about to do it different" "

this describes my company to the letter. i also work with a bunch of people close to retirement age. i shit you not, i have "engineering manuals" dated from the mid 1970's because the product HAS NOT CHANGED in 35 years. our cad system (and i use that term loosely) is still in use from the early 80s, although we've been trying to migrate to AutoCAD for the last 1.5 years. The long term goal is to join the rest of the 21st century and move to Inventor, but in all seriousness, its going to take a bunch of people either retiring or dying off for that to ever happen. i understand the mantra of "if its not broke don't fix it" but the resistance to change is unfuckingbelievable. there's guys who have been in the same position for literally 20 years, with no ambition to move up or learn anything new.

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 6:18 PM. Reason : .]

9/14/2009 6:16:23 PM

don't hate.

9/14/2009 6:22:31 PM

the rant in the OP is typical of people that don't fucking understand the engineering principles behind whatever it is they're bitching about

it makes that shit seem arbitrary to them

the people that understand get tired of dealing with these fucks that don't

this explains the lack of sense of humor

9/14/2009 8:10:13 PM

^BULLSHIT

AND

SHENANIGANS

9/14/2009 8:13:27 PM

not going to read the whole thing but i will say rules are there for a very important reason. SAFETY. those of us with prof eng licenses actually have to put our stamp on things. meaning we're liable.

of course there are always times and places for creativity. but there are def times and places for rules.

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 8:31 PM. Reason : er]

9/14/2009 8:30:43 PM

I dont think zx was referring to items that require the approval of a professional - anyone with half a brain knows you dont fuck around with that.

9/14/2009 8:34:17 PM

Quote :

"And how many must be the authority on some subject matter of which they have little working knowledge? "

Sounds like you've been dealing with the Army Corp of Engineers recently.

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 8:40 PM. Reason : ^I get calls from contractors all the time asking if they can half-ass something I have on my plans]

9/14/2009 8:39:02 PM

well i said anyone with half a brain


EI representin

9/14/2009 8:50:33 PM

^^ contractors are usually the ones who destroy the spirit of the engineer....crushing any sense of humor that might exist. I feel the pain.

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 8:53 PM. Reason : ]

9/14/2009 8:53:00 PM

I've worked with the USACE extensively. I've worked with the Department of Defense. I've worked with the Department of Energy. I've worked with a lot of professional engineers.

And now I'm working with a firm to supply them and their client (an entity created by a petroleum company for natural gas transport via pipeline) with a boiler feed water deaeration system. Believe me, I understand all about safety and regulations being there for a purpose. I've spent a lot of time studying up on API, ASME, ASHRAE, NEMA, etc. docs to comply with regs and project requirements. I'm an EI...and would be working toward my PE if I was with a company that actually employed one and if it offered any real benefits for me to obtain it.

But with the present engineering firm, I've had it up to my eyeballs and then some. These guys have admitted to not knowing much about steam and Heat Exchange Institute accepted principles and guidelines, yet they are trying to tell me how to design and build my goddamn deaerator. Some of their demands are ridiculous...and it's created TONS of headaches for me...AND for a few others in my office. What gets me is this shit isn't rocket science...and the principles and theory of design are damn simple fluid and thermodynamics.

Yeah, I've been on the other side of the coin, especially when I did soils and land mapping and worked with real estate developers and individuals who had no idea about NCDENR and county regs concerning onsite sewage disposal and real estate planning. Yeah, there are tons of them who just think they can build wherever and try and pull the wool over the health department. It's unbelievable the shit I've heard proposed. I've had my share of idiots question or just flat out refuse to accept what I've told them.

9/15/2009 2:31:51 AM

the real world sounds pretty shitty... maybe I should just stay in college?

9/15/2009 2:43:25 AM

you should stay in college and get all the degrees / interests before you stop

it's so hard to go back, for realz

9/15/2009 2:51:24 AM

It's a lot more fun to stay in school. I'll take a bad grade or two any day over dealing with some of the shit I've gotten.

Bad thing is, it costs money to stay in school, and you can make money in the real world. I've toyed with the idea of going back, but I likes my salary too much.

9/15/2009 2:53:29 AM

I hate these assholes. They FINALLY figured out that I hate their boring asses and their bloated firm and went through our manufacturer's rep to find out what's going on. She can't stand them either. She and I get along fabulously...she called and ranted for five minutes on how ridiculous they were before touching base with me. I listened and laughed.

AND...I had one for another project come down to our offices to personally discuss and look over the plans for the system we had designed for them. He was so boring that I wanted to kill myself. My boss even commented on the huge stick the guy had up his ass.

9/21/2009 8:18:01 PM

9/21/2009 8:32:07 PM

Quote :

"I, too, made it up until college thinking that NASA employed way too many train operators."

9/21/2009 8:32:22 PM

Quote :

"Generally speaking, people that feel some inward need to be an authority on any subject matter are more often than not, not experts on that subject matter and are compensating for inadequacies in other areas of their lives."

Remember your old sentence-ending friend, the period? It is located between the "," and the "/" on your keyboard. you should visit it more often

9/21/2009 8:35:37 PM

Why did I become an engineer?

I wish I could design and build some of my own pipe dreams and actually make money doing so. I do make good money at my job, but I wish it was doing something more interesting. And less dealing with boring people.

9/24/2009 7:58:12 PM