What is the best engineering advice you ever received? 205

[tulum]

I would like to continue engineerdaves series of threads; what frustrates you at work, and what satisfies you at work...

I just finished reading one of Donald Trumps books entitled "the way to the top". What he did was he asked the top executives across the US to submit the one single most important thing they learned to help them achieve businees success.

For example one qoute was (and is very applicable to engineering):

"Although you can't always control where you are planted-to which department or specific project you are assigned-you can control the experience while you are there...bloom where you are planted."

So my question to the forum is: What is the best engineering advice you ever received?

 

[prost]

aardvarkdw--taken to the extreme, means you would have to abandon all your sense of ethics and morality to do something you know is wrong even though the bossman who signs your checks ordered you to do it. Not even 18 yr. privates in the military are allowed to abandon their sense of ethics and morality to that extent.

 

[HgTX]

"That doesn't mean do things WRONG"

Taken to the extreme, it still doesn't mean do things WRONG. It means not everything you learned is absolutely RIGHT. More importantly, it means gaining an understanding of A way to do something vs. THE way to do something, which means gaining a sense of what is absolutely wrong vs. right, and what is variable.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[HVACctrl]

Not necessarily restricted to engineering, this story does a good job of showing how people blindly follow the status quo and why it could be ridiculous:

That’s the Way We’ve Always Done it

Put 4 gorillas in a cage. Hang a bunch of bananas from a hook in the center, just out of reach. Put a stepladder in the cage.

Eventually, one gorilla will use the step ladder to reach the bananas. As soon as he gets close, blast all 4 gorillas with cold water from a fire hose. The one going for the bananas will back down and all of them will cuddle into the corner.

Sooner or later, another gorilla or perhaps the same gorilla will go for the bananas again. When it gets close, blast them all with the cold water from the fire hose again. They will start to make the connection.

Now, replace one of the original gorillas with a new gorilla who knows nothing about the fire hose. None of the original gorillas will go for the bananas anymore because they know the consequences. The new one will eventually go for the bananas. The other gorillas will beat the tar out of him before he even gets close, not wanting to get hit by the cold water.

Now replace the next original gorilla with a new one who also knows nothing of the fire hose. When this one goes for the bananas, it will likewise get the tar beat out of it by the other gorillas. Even the first replacement gorilla that has not seen the fire hose will join in on the festivities although it doesn’t know why.

Keep up the process until you have replaced all the original gorillas and now you have nothing but gorillas that have never seen the fire hose. In fact put the fire hose away- you won’t need it anymore. Now, each gorilla has at least once gotten the tar beat out of it for going for the bananas and will never go after them again. No gorilla will ever so much as think about the bananas and no gorilla will even know why. They’ll just know that “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.

 

[EVERFABCHAD]

Don't let you highs get too high and don't let your low's get too low

 

[prost]

"Always make the font in graphs bigger than you think, then increase the font size two more"

 

[periodic]

From a professor who transferrred from industry to academia:

"Your job as an engineer is not to solve problems.
It is to define what the problem is and THEN solve it."

 

[l3city]

Avoid re-inventing the wheel!! Go to previous projects, see how it was done, improve it as neccessary, finish it!!

 

[0707]

TRy to be up date and learn with what you have done wrong

 

[ScottyUK]

Don't be afraid to make a mistake. If you're afraid to make a mistake, you'll be afraid to make anything.

Just don't make the mistake too spectacular.

----------------------------------

I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[Argan]

People of integrity expect to be believed, and when they are not they let time prove them right.

"Some clients you need to waste their money in order to prove you're working." - book "A Civil Action"

A rule of life, a lesion will continue until the lesion is learned. (this one gives me shivers)

Apply the 80/20 rule to everything.

The number one enemy of great, is good - Jim Collins "Good to Great"

Who before what - Jim Collins "Good to Great"

If you have to do something horrible you have to do that day. Wake up and eat a live frog then you can continue with the rest of your day knowing it won't get any worse.

When you want to complain about how hard your life/job/whatever is, imagine yourself griping while standing in a children's cancer ward.

 

[Iamjonscranium]

when something doesnt work:

check to see if its plugged in

check to see if its grounded


these next ones everyone might not agree with. i am very new to the engineering world, but this is what i've learned:

never be afraid to deny fault in a situation. there is nothing worse than taking the blame for something you didnt do. your co-workers may not like you as much, but most people dont like the boss.

never be afraid to accept blame in a situation. there is nothing worse than others getting blamed for your mistakes. in your time of need, you will find yourself alone.

listen and consider everyone's opinion, but in the end, do what you think is best. if you get blamed for something, at least let it be your mistake, not someone else's.

be sure to correct people when they need it.

be sure to praise people whether they need it or not.

 

[KENAT]

periodic, that reminded me.

Always make sure your Requirement is real & is fully defined and makes sense.

My Design Prof first pointed that out to me, he was on the F20 Tigershark program at Northrop so learnt it the hard way. I frequently fail to keep it too, despite my best efforts.

 

[COWBOYME]

What a tremendous thread!

Here is some brilliantly rendered wisdom about not wasting time:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say - Pink Floyd

"If you don't go where you want to when you want to, when you do go you'll find out you've gone" - Bert Munro

"...the future's uncertain and the end is always near" - Morrison

Moral? You're an engineer. If you're not happy, either professionally or in life, figure out a way to fix it and start right now, before it's too late.

 

[HVACctrl]

Cowboyme,
Great response! That was pretty uplifting.

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[KENAT]

On the other hand,

If you can't take a joke you sholdn't have joined.

Frequently invoked at my last employer.

 

[COWBOYME]

The Hard vs. Smart argument, or more accurately, that there is an argument has always fascinated me.

There is an old story called the Genius and the Idiot that I've always remembered. To wit:

There was once a town in which lived a genius and an idiot. When it came time to elect a new town Mayor, everyone knew the genius would be elected so as a joke, someone also nominated the idiot. Well, they split the vote and it was decided that since the genius, being a genius, would obviously take charge, there was no harm in both of them serving as co-mayors.

Now the idiot was very happy and threw himself into his new responsibilities with all his heart. The genius however, knowing that he was smarter than everyone else felt that the day-to-day minutia was below him. So he went about enjoying the trappings of his office while the idiot toiled away totally oblivious to his surroundings.

The town was destroyed because almost nothing got done and what little did get done was done by an idiot.

Moral? There is precious little difference between a genius who does nothing and an idiot who works very hard.

Story from "a Dissertation on Roast AArdvark and Other Reflections" - T.S. Alexakos

 

[KENAT]

Not exactly advice but also from my last place :

"It's good enough for government work"

Doesn't that reassure you your tax dollars are well spent!

 

[EddyC]

Got this one in a chinese fortune cookie:

"He who expects no gratitude shall never be disappointed."

 

[JStephen]

"It's good enough for government work"

You don't appreciate this idea until you do contracting for the Corps of Engineers. You'll have a Specification which conflicts with the Plans, which conflict with themselves. No minor little detail conflicts, big huge glaring done-by-two-people-that-didn't-talk-to-each-other conflicts. You can't ask questions because no one can answer them in less than a month. The person handling the job will know nothing whatever about the type of work proposed, yet be such an expert that you can't tell him anything. The only way to bid such a job is to throw so much money in the bid you can't possibly lose. And then ponder why your taxes are so high.

 

[SomeYahoo]

JStephen - You try to run a "company" as big as the government and get as much done without a few flaws. Let me know how you do.

Eddy - I heard the secret to fortune cookies is to add the words "in bed" to the end. Give it a shot!

Oh yeah... Advice. Know your customer; whether it be the next higher in command, your cohort in another department, or the end-user. Know what they want and how to best deliver.