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?

 

[jasl]

My favourite is the following:

" When nothing goes right, take left"

 

[HVAC68]

My favourite is

"Nothing succeeds like success"

HVAC68

 

[karlbamforth]

Great thread.
With reference to the "smoking a pipe/ritual gives time to engage your brain"
Many years ago I was chatting with a military pilot and the subject of in flight emergencies came up. His immediate action drill in response to any emergency, "wind up the clock", it gives time to engage the brain before your hands move something you really wish they hadn't. He was 84 and survived WW2 so I guess it worked.

 

[Speedy]

That reminds me of the advice a policeman friend of mine got from a senior comrade on the beat one night.

"There's always time to tie your shoelaces".

This was when they were about to enter a bar where a tight was taking place. He reckoned this was about enough time for the guys to have winded themselves. They could then walk in and make the arrests.

 

[kris1]

Great thread


For a mental health of (software) engineers

In a day, if you successfully achieved something after 4PM e.g. got a function debugged and running. Save it, document it (optional) and do not touch it or anything else for the day. Your wife and kids will enjoy a happy evening with you and next day you will wake up fit for other tasks.

 

[hahor]

- When it works it’s OK.
- If it doesn’t, don’t say: “My model predicted this would work.”
- Reality is the criterion of truth.

Kind Regards,
hahor

 

[aamoroso]

Here are a couple of my favorites that I pass to my coworkers as they have been passed to me:

Work smarter not harder!

A smart man learns from his own mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Say what you believe, when you believe in what you say!

Train your people so you can move up. If nobody can do your job, you will have to do it yourself.

 

[afterhrs]

This one has helped me immensely.

You get what you INSPECT, not what you EXPECT.

Great thread!

Afterhrs

 

[quark]

Excellent one, afterhrs!

 

[tomwalz]

At its very best any communication is maybe 25% good. Engineering drawings may hit 75%.

If the other guy thinks you are going over details too much then try to get out of the project.

Learn what change orders are. You can lose money trying to make toilet seats for only $600 if the specifications keep changing.

The other guy’s job always looks a lot easier than yours. It isn’t.

Somewhere, sometime everyone puts decimal point in the wrong place. Always use a conversion table and a calculator.

Success in any major project comes very shortly after the time when you absolutely loathe and detest it.

The guys on the plant floor usually have a good idea what is going wrong. They don’t know engineering language and often they describe the situation in terms that don’t make sense to the engineer.

They will tell you it is impossible before you start. They will tell you it is impossible while you try to do it. They will even tell you it is impossible as they stand and watch you do it over and over.

The more your design is done out a Grainger catalog, the better it is. (This is “don’t reinvent the wheel” but seems to be easier to understand.)

My best invention is a stainless steel cup on a chain. The local park department was trying to figure out how to get water for dogs from a drinking fountain. Picking the dogs up didn’t work very well even with small dogs. A cup on a chain is hung next to the fountain. Fill the cup with water from the fountain, set it down, the dog drinks and then you hang the cup up on a hook. It’s been eight years; the original bowl is still there. Everyone knows how to use it. The dogs get water. One of the reasons I really like it is that I was first going for a dog level fountain as an addition at floor level, with bowl and scrubber to keep the bowl clean. I hadn’t solved the problem of disposing of the waste or how to keep kids out of it. Then I just undesigned like crazy and there it was. I donated the materials and engineering time and talent (grin).


Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessor.com

 

[debodine]

tomwalz:

Such darn good info I had to give you a star!

 

[afterhrs]

This one is for the people that will appreciate a collision between a redneck saying and the human side of engineering

"Be careful when being mean to people and critters, they
just might learn thier lesson."

This saying is the southern take on Confucius.

Regards,
Afterhrs

 

[AJone]

"Proof may just be lack of Imagination"

 

[AggieYank]

for all the new guys out there:

"Questions are better than mistakes."

 

[matthewj]

You have 2 eyes, 2 ears, and one mouth. Use them in that proportion.

 

[waterguy]

It’s easier to criticize than create.

 

[keano]

My site agent told me this on my first day at work, regarding Site diries.

"If its not written down it never happened."

 

[tulum]

The tick said something in another thread that I thought was worth adding to the list...

"Plenty of lazy old people out there. Don't be fooled. They just sweat more."

 

[TheMan1]

Be carfull not to make too many ememies on the way up, they may still be there if your on the way back down.

 

[keano]

200 post's and still coming keep it up.