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

[cheater cheater]

Tim,
I am in agreement with your statement. We think exactly the same about
this. One thing I'd like to point out though is that we're discussing
this in a very homogenous environment. Obviously people will think
it's some sort of abomination if you don't have a tinker hobby since
we're in the geek nest :) Which makes me even more happy that I'm in a
place where so many people think alike to me and have similar goals
and ways of understanding things. It's just that maybe we're a little
bit single-minded as a community and there are questions 'outsiders'
would ask and theses they would pose, ones that we cannot possibly
conceive because of our point of view.

One thing I noticed being skipped a lot here is: in the original
letter mentioned by Paul Schreiber, most of the issues were addressed
by the author because he cared about the humans affected by the
technology. This is a form of social responsibility that does not
always come bundled with engineering knowledge. I find that people who
are socially responsible make much better workers, because they
laterally think about what the consequences of their work will be - as
opposed to people who are egoists and will try to finish off the work
as quickly as possible in that case. I find this sense of
responsibility can induce proper engineering practices, but not the
other way around. Therefore for me it is more desirable in my mind.

But this is off topic. I shouldn't post that.. but here I go. It's the
last one, I promise! :^)

Replies that only relate to the social and non-sdiy aspects contained
in this message please off-list.

Cheers,
homogenous-D

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 9:25 PM, Tim Parkhurst<tim.parkhurst at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 6:09 AM, Veronica
> Merryfield<veronica.merryfield at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>
>> The consensus boiled down to what does someone do outside of work and what
>> did they play with or do as a child.
>
> Absolutely. Where I work, we look for people who have a passion for
> what they do. We look for people who are tinkerers and who have
> hobbies that get them thinking and doing and making things. Of course,
> education helps, but it doesn't tell the whole story. I'm constantly
> surprised by things like people with EE degrees who don't own a
> breadboard or an oscilloscope. I've run into recent EE grads who don't
> even know what a breadboard is. WTF?!? Why bother with four years of
> grueling classes to end up doing something you don't really enjoy?
>
> Tim (tinkerer) Servo
> --
> "Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers."
> - H.L. Hastings
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