[sdiy] design experts

[Jay Schwichtenberg]

I agree with this completely.

Electronics 'in theory' is just applied mathmatics. But there are a whole
hell of a lot of gotchas in there. Most books don't deal with those aspects
(Bob Pease's Troubleshooting Analog Circuits is an excellent exception) or
if they do they're a narrow focus. How many books take you through the
design of a circuit with all those issues, component selection and PCB
layout in the detail to do it good on all counts. Not many. More could be
written about the gotchas than the theory if someone wanted to take the
time.

That's why having those senior engineers around that have all the knowledge
and experience is important. Usually you can learn enought from them in a
day that would take years to learn. I've had the great fortune of working
with several of these people over the years and their experience has been
invaluable to me.

But wait! All those old people have got to expensive to have around,
mentoring takes time and time is money, g-jobs (personal projects done on
company time and with company materials with the goal of learning something)
also take time and reguire money. Hell, can't you hire 4 engineers right out
of college that don't speak english for what they cost.

And as those bean counters say 'Beans make the world go round, make the
world go round'.

'Them times are a changin'

Jay


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> [mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Bert
> Schiettecatte
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 9:26 AM
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: RE: [sdiy] design experts
>
>
> >This happened just today, on the Tube Collector list. A crusty
> >old engineer who designs switching power supplies for satellites
> >made lots of snide putdowns about fast-recovery rectifiers, and how
> >they can't POSSIBLY be audible in a tube amp.
> >The guy does not own and has never owned a tube amp....
> >but he does own lots of textbooks!
>
> This is exactly why I ask myself every single day whether I should
> continue my phd or not. I've learned so much more useful stuff the past
> year by just reading stuff and meeting people, than I have learned the
> past couple of years in university. I've also learnt that text books are
> no substitute for experience in that 6th sense of audio engineering.
>
> Bert
>
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