The best engineer 12

[Kevin_Hall]

A long time ago one of my teachers told me:"To become a great engineer you should not know everything, you should know where to find everything" and I think that this statement is undisputed.
What do you think of it?

 

[AlmostRetired]

It's fine not to have memorised every equation you use, but when you look it up, you do need to know how to apply it.

 

[Ron247]

A long time ago one of my teachers told me:"To become a great engineer you should not know everything, you should know where to find everything" and I think that this statement is undisputed.

I tend to find bumper sticker length sayings have a lot of holes in them once you start really thinking about them. Here are some for this topic.

-I only need to know where to find the answer? I would think you would need to add to that the ability to read, comprehend and apply the information once you know where to look. But if all I need to be a good engineer is where it is at, I guess that is easier. Just a game of information hide-and-seek.
-The person who gave this advice, I bet they had to live and work by this concept. Were they a "great engineer"?
-"you should not know everything" is kind of poor advice. If someone was capable of knowing everything or even knowing a lot, we are advising them to stop and change to just knowing where to look?
-Where do you look when you have all the data and information, but you must now make some kind of decision, or create something new?
-A person with the best database on where information is kept but does not know what F=ma means, is the world's greatest engineer. Damn that Dewey Decimal system. It has always been my downfall.
-I bet people will dispute what undisputed means? Does it mean no one has ever disputed this statement? Does it means that all disputes were found to be baseless?

Here's another saying I think is undisputed. "There are 3 kinds of people in this world. Those that can count and those that can't."

 

[GregLocock]

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who know binary, and those who don't.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[IRstuff]

One can consider the other logical formulations of the saying to see that it's a necessary, but not necessarily sufficient condition; i.e., not being a excellent finder makes it unlikely that one is a excellent engineer.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[Ron247]

Greg-isn't that still just 3 "know binary and don't". Is that called Trinary?

 

[IRstuff]

Ternary, actually; had a coworker who was an a**hole and they liked to glom onto the latest buzzwords, and ternary logic was a buzzy thing for a few years in the early/mid 80s. When they announced their imminent departure; we had huge farewell party, but for some reason their invitation got lost ;-)

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[FACS]

Seems to me that this thread was (once again) hijacked with over thinking and expanded definitions.

The intent of the quote is sound. Just because you do not know everything, does not mean you know nothing. People taking the message of this saying as "you don't have to know anything" are the people that may not get any real work done because they spend so much time twisting and contorting anything and everything just to prove what an innovative thinker they are.

You don' have to know everything, but you should know where to find this information. I do not have the formula memorized, but I know how to find the formula, I know how to define the variables and I know how to solve the equation once I set it up.

That is the intent of the message.

Stop over thinking it.