[sdiy] Can your *really* teach "Engineering"?

[Richard Wentk]

On 20 Aug 2009, at 11:00, cheater cheater wrote:

> I'm sorry, but modern technology is but a blip on the map of human
> existence. Exploring your feelings and emotion through art and
> entertainment is not.
>
> People used to have emotions before they had alphabets. People had op
> amps only for a few decades.
>
> Social and sociostructural progress is insanely more important than  
> soldering.
>
> Get back in line.

Would you like fries with that?

You would? What were you planning to cook them on?

Actually I don't see much exploring of emotion happening either.  
What's really happened - really and truly - is that people have been  
conditioned into acting like Pavlovian consumer primates. Right from  
bottom to top, more stuff is better. And you can never have enough.

When I did my eng degree the most important lessons were that  
*everything* is a trade-off, which means that perfection is never  
possible. And also that real world events have real world consequences.

Marketing and weak management are both based on the premise that  
neither of these are true. All you need to do is be important enough  
and dishonest enough, and things will happen.

Which they will - for a while. Then the wheels fall off - sometimes  
literally - and you have no clue what to do next.

The world would be a better place if everyone did some engineering -  
if they had to try and model and assemble something physical that  
worked to a specification.

Too many people have failed to learn that actions have consequences,  
and that *no* amount of bullshit, bluster, machismo, posturing, or  
fake charm and smarm can protect you from those consequences half as  
well as having a clue in the first place.

Richard