Quote of the Day – rstoddart(06/14/2012)

I am an Engineer,
My job is to make things work.
To save lives, increase productivity, and make the future.
I deal with facts, numbers, and calculations.
My work is to avoid the impossible, and find the loophole in the limits of materials and systems.
Anything you want that interferes with above, I cannot abide.

I am not here to be your friend.

rstoddart Comment to this comic.

161954.strip


[Seriously all I can think with that is truth

On more than one occasion I have said something that has hurt someone’s feelings because well, if I didn’t it would violate the above.  If I’m curt or think that what I said was unbelievably mean, read the above and understand it’s not necessarily you, it’s just your brain and the ideas it creates. -B]

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About TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms. Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

5 Responses to Quote of the Day – rstoddart(06/14/2012)

  1. Lyle says:

    It can cut the other direction too.  There have been several cases of “experts” telling me the multitude of physical and economic reasons why my ideas can’t possibly work, and that if only I could understand I would abandon my stupid idea.  So when I make it work anyway, and it becomes something of a hit, they have to pretend they never said it.  Maybe they were on my side all along, even.  Several million dolars in sales later, it’s just a funny story.  But then when my next idea comes out, “Well now that’s just impossible, no one would be interested anyway, and if it made any sense whatsoever, J.M Browning, or M. Kalashnikov, etc., would have done it a long time ago…and it would cost so much no one would buy it…”

    “If Man were meant to fly, he’d have been born with wings” comes to mind.  Why, the Wright Brothers don’t stand a chance.  It’s obvious.  Don’t you see?– the government flight research team has failed over and over, and they have far more resources, plus real experts, at their disposal…  This sort of thing repeats itself, somewhere, every day.

    • Oh no doubt and you fall in the area of Dilbert.  If you say something is a bad idea, it probably needs some serious analysis if I still think it’s a good idea.

      I’m fighting people at work because my idea couldn’t possibly work or be an improvement.  Analysis says otherwise.

      If someone tells me my idea is a bad one, I don’t respond with “Now I hate you.” It’s a question as to why.  If they present a solid rational argument against it that shows yes it’s a bad idea then yeah I’ll probably ditch it.  If however I sit there and go, wait their rationalization makes assumptions that could be invalid, I.E. J.M.B. would have done it already if it was possible isn’t exactly a proper argument against it.  Defying the laws of physics is an argument against it.  Production costs exceeding what you could sell it for is a argument against it, however that could very possibly be solved.

      A lot of it is attitude.  If you get angry at me if I say it’s a bad idea, then I’m not going to care, and I will be very happy I didn’t spend the time writing that email.  If you ask why, then I’ll take the time to explain it.

  2. North says:

    I think all of us engineers have these traits in common, to one degree or another.

  3. Though I’m not a “papered” engineer… I still have to shoot down some of the ideas the “papered” engineers come up with, it’s funny how that happens, especially when you have extensive knowledge of a product and you have to tell it like it is to the folks that haven’t been around your product for the same amount of time..