Here

To those I'll add one that I sadly had to author: "The difference between a techinican and and engineer is that an engineer can tell you why something works. He can't, however, tell you why it doesn't work..."

Engineer vs. Manager

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces altitude and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."

You must be an engineer" says the balloonist.

"I am" replies the man. "How did you know."

"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's no use to anyone."

The man below says "you must be in management."

"I am" replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault."

Apropos Rusty's comment: In another life, in another century, at the dawn of the missile age, I was the XO of a reserve unit with a lot of electronic techs employed by a local missile manufacturer.

One day the papers carried a story about an Atlas missile that blew up on the launching pad. That night, one of my techs came in shaking his head, mumbling, "I told those s.o.b.'s, I told those s.o.b.'s."

"Told them what?" I asked.

"Told them there was circuit interference that would prevent the umbilical from disconnecting."

"Impossible," scoffed the engineers, "that couldn't happen, we designed it."

Nevertheless, on the launch pad the engines started, the missile rose, the umbilical failed to disconnect, safety systems shut down the engines, the rocket fell back on the pad, & a few tons of rocket fuel went up in a spectacular explosion.

It appears that engineers are also not very good at accepting advice from their presumed inferiors.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
It appears that engineers are also not very good at accepting advice from their presumed inferiors.

I think that observation could be extended to include a number of other professions, as well.

Over my career as an airline technical apparatchik, I, and some of my colleagues, made a number of formal suggestions that were ignored. However, a little later, the changes we suggested were silently put in place. Several times, I was even asked for more information, with no action taken........ Until way later.

1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.
2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.
3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.
4. Then analyze the situation:



a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.

b. If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.

c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.

d. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.

e. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.

f. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.

g. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.

h. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.

i. If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.

j. If they have already left for the day, put them in Management.

k. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.

l. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.

m. Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.

I sincerely thank all you gentlemen for the above view points. Now I understand why and how I'm totally %*@*)$ up.............

Carl, this is not limited only to engineers lol many that I have known are all %#*+& also, including myself