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Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand 12

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"Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" both by Ayn Rand, should be required reading for all engineers.

My Economics Professor recommended both to me years ago - I am indebted forever. He also told me to read the "Tao Teh Ching" frequently, which I do.

These three literary works have help me improve myself which in turn helps me get ahead in my work.

Can anyone recommend other great reads to help achieve these ends?

Thanks.
 
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Interesting discussion and suggestions for reading. I've read several of them. But my take:

For the serious: Any of the books by Henry Petroski or Samuel Florman are good. I've suggested them to the younger generation of engineers at times and some do read them and come out smiling.

For the more lighthearted: Any Dilbert book. Sometimes you really don't get understand it until you live it though.

Enjoy!



 
A good book for young engineers is called "Learning to Think (at MIT)" by an author whose name i cannot recall. I loaned the book many years ago and never got it back.

This book describes the author's journey through engineering school and gives a good perspective on how we "learn to think" like engineers.
 
Henry Petroski recently wrote "Bridge of Dreams," an eye-opener for engineers and civil engineers in particular. I will take the liberty of referring to one of the last chapters that discloses the existence of a generation gap in engineering design.

It seems that every 30-40 years the new generation forgets or turns away from the hard lessons taught by the old masters. New daring designs arise as a result, and the inevitable rash of failures ensues. There were several box beam bridge failures within a short time around 1970. We are now due for the next rash of failures. I will not predict where in this forum.

This is required reading from Henry Petroski.
 
"Il était minuit cinq à Bhopal" (French book, amazon.ca)
Just to remind consequences of our acts...
 
Hmmmm, I think that management types need to read...some of these books.

Hagar...
 
I read both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. The Fountainhead, IMO, was a better book.
 
Thanks rbcoulter, it seemed like a more realistic story to me also. There are probably engineers in our history who can tell a similar story. It was fairly realistic, except for part of blowing up your own buildings because you don't like the modifications made to them.
 
I agree with Massey; I hope if they ever do a movie re-make of the Fountainhead, the writers will change the plot slightly to have the hero destroy the building because the modifications had made it unsafe. It would be easier to root for a hero who risked his whole career to protect innocent families from an unsafe building rather than an elitist egomaniac. My experience has been that management always trys to mess up a good design by cutting costs and unless we fight very hard, safety usually suffers as a result.
 
Rand's "Virtue of Selfishness" rather explicitly sketches the object of objectivism. I enjoyed "Anthem", but the conclusion seems terribly flawed and inconsistent with experience. (Experience tells me I'm neither God nor the true master of my own destiny. I more often find myself bombarded by circumstance or choosing to bombard others with my version of it--seldomly finding escape from this situation.)

Relating to the motive of improving self to get ahead in your work, I find critical thinking to be a must. (Is all truth propositional? How else do we weed out truth from error? Engineering is all about apprehending/leveraging truth.)

An excellent author who looks at "modern" thinking and its consequences is Francis A. Schaeffer.

The Trilogy:
The God Who Is There
Escape from Reason
He Is There and He Is Not Silent

Obviously, this is philosophical, but within the realms of improving self what isn't?


Jeff Mowry
DesignHaus Industrial Design
 
More into the physics side is Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"

I'm reading it now and it is fascinating.

On the business side, I really liked "The Power of Focus". It's one of those feel good goal setting books, but I needed it at this time in my life (still a relatively young engineer!)

The Ayn Rand book I had looked at before in the past, it is very intriguing, but I'll hold off on that until I get a couple of my current books read.

Once again in the physics realm, I heard the Feynman books are very good.
 
For a sobering look at the the single greatest factor affecting virutally everything we design, take a look at:
Hubbert's Peak;The Impending World Oil Shortage, by Kenneth Deffeyes. (a timely read I'd say)

Then if you think your life is too hard try:
Seven Years in Tibet (true story) by Heinrich Harrer

And, yes, if you need to lighten up there's:
Murphy's Law Book Two, Arthur Bloch ISBN 0-8431-0674-3
which includes one of my favorties... Ducharm's Axiom: If one views his problems closely enough he will recognize himself as part of the problem.
Steven C. Potter
stevenpotter@sympatico.ca
 
I am interested in books that detail the trials and successes of engineers.

Feynman as a physicist has some books that are supposed to be good, they are on my next to read list.

There are books on Watson and Crick and other famous scientists like Einstein, tons of books on DaVinci. Recent movies on mathematicians (A Beautiful Mind.

There are tons of books on business gurus.

But do you have any recommendations for books on famous engineers?

By the way still slowly working my way through Richard Rhodes book on the A-bomb. It is very thorough. Can't wait to read some more by him

 
Feynman's books are terrific. They are heavy but light at the same time, if that's possible. Can't recommend them enough. The intended audience for those books was actually non-science types. Even better is if you can get tapes of his MIT "physics for non-physicists" lectures which you can sometimes find at the public library. George Gamow has a couple books like that too. Good stuff to read when you're in an introspective mood, like on a warm Sunday afternoon out in the backyard under a shadetree when you just got rid of the kids and Momma is off shopping somewhere. Yeah buddy!

"What Went Wrong?" is really good for learning from past failures. This is a book about process plant failures, explosions, etc.

I think most engineers do have a philosophical bent. I mean, you sat through those lectures on the second law, right? And didn't it get you to thinking?

ASME publishes a little book called The Ten Unwritten Laws of Engineering. Mandatory reading IMO. Also "The Day I Almost Quit" by Frederick J. Moody is good. Thanks!
Pete
 
For a wonderful "recreational" read with a scientific slant (metallurgy & chemistry)I'd recommend: Uncle Tungsten, by Oliver Sacks. ISBN 0-375-40448-1 Steven C. Potter
stevenpotter@sympatico.ca
 
I also enjoyed "The Existentials Pleasures of Engineering". Also, another one that I have found useful to keep in mind at work is the book "Fish".
 
In my opinion, a combination of objectivist philosophy,
strategic thinking from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu,
and knowledge of Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator will
put you in great advantage in your career as an engineer.
 
Richard Feynman's books are well worth reading. He has a non-nonsense approach to explaning things. I especially enjoyed his book, "Surely You Must Be Joking Mr. Feynman".

I read "Atlas Shrugged" before I became an engineer and I thought that most of the characters were one dimensional. It's a good story, but Ms. Rand grossly oversimplifies the personal relationships that her lead character has with the various male counterparts in the story. And the manner in which she presents and explains engineering concepts isn't much better. I'd suggest that SHE read some of the books that were referenced in the prior threads.

By the way, I work in a steel mill as a Senior Metallurgist, and my last name is Reardon. And please, don't call me Hank...


Maui
 
Maui,

Unfortunately Ms. Rand has been dead a long time, all her reading is finished. The characters in Atlas Shrugged are one dimensional, typical of driven people who seem to have no other reason for being than what they do. She was not an engineer and the book wasn't about engineering. But thanks for your insight just the same.

Also thanks to all who have recommended the excellent books above. I hope this thread is around for a while as it will serve as an excellent reading list.

Many Thanks,

Massey
 
recommended reading:
"Thick Face, Black Heart" [bat]Gravity is a harsh mistress.[bat]
 
These are all excellent recommendations and should be duly noted into a comprehensive Engineers' Reader compendium. Having said that, I can't believe no one's mentioned The One Minute Manager yet. It's probably the easiest and juiciest read in this whole list.

It was from this book that I learned not to shy away from disagreeing w/ other peers: if two professionals (managers, engineers) doing the same job agree 100% with what the other one is doing, one of them is redundant!

I also appreciate Ayn Rand's works. She led a very troubled and inconsistent life. I think we can all learn from what she said and not from her example, happens to us all.

Any thorough review of her works will reveal that her one-dimensional characters were messengers. That's why they seem to be on the soap box a lot. She saw the novel as a conduit through which to express her views and philosophy. If you have an interest in Rand, the Author (not the philosopher), read instead We, The Living.


Roberto Sanabria
 
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