General Engineering Introduction/Golden Ignorance/quiz

{Why is knowing nothing an asset to Engineering sometimes? |type="[]"} + Can practice being crazy + Existing assumptions and prejudices of those that know have no opportunity to seduce + Other respected engineers have not been successful .. they may be in a box they can not climb out of. + Innocence of prior work sometimes enables walking down a path different than past attempts that ended in failure. } {When should an Engineer read prior work documentation? |type="[]"} + When the product (made object) is successful and the task is incremental improvement. + As long as hints of multiple, possible solutions appear as the Engineer reads about failures + As long as the engineer can see flaws in previous solutions or flaws in the test protocol of those solutions. - Only when reverse engineering is not faster or not possible. } {How does an Engineer value/protect/respectfully talk about their ignorance? |type="[]"} - by staying ignorant - by having preferences for one type of engineering or another - by practicing creativity in another area ... for example creating unusual tastes in food by mixing spices together in different ways. + by knowing what they don't know. } {What are your choices, if you are asked to design a fast food machine to cook over easy eggs? |type="[]"} - I am an idiot, I should already know how to cook an over easy egg. - I have nothing to offer these people, let me find something else to do. - Find a tutorial or something similar and teach myself. + I can become an engineer. If I were to engineer (design) how to cook an over easy egg, I would ____________. {You don't know how to cook an over easy egg and neither does anyone else. What are you going to do? |type="[]"} -Nobody can teach me, can not find anything on the internet, must not be possible. Too hard. Quit. +I can become an engineer. If I were to engineer (design) how to cook an over easy egg, I would _______________. {Who determines an Engineer's Starting Point? |type="()"} - project managers - clients, people with the money + the engineer - the technologists {How does an Engineer student practice picking Starting Points? |type="[]"} - guess and hope - converse with others about it + practice when doing homework + bounce between skimming, reading ahead in text books and teasing detail out of spaces between words {Which of these statements about the uniqueness of starting points is most true? |type="()"} + unique to the individual engineer - unique to the company, tools, materials - depends upon past failure points in the design process - a consensus will emerge in a team when the correct starting point is found {Police officers suspect guilt or innocence of a person very rapidly. They feel this in their gut. What does an engineer feel in his/her gut? |type="()"} - ignorance - confusion + starting points - failure {An engineer is expected to know everything, yet this is humanly impossible. When asked a question the engineer doesn't know, the best thing to do when in front of non-engineers/techs/experts is: |type="[]"} + pause, think like an engineer, design a solution, review the possibilities, make up an answer and be willing to be corrected on the spot with a flattering apology like "wow, you know more than I do." - Say "I've forgotten, let me get back to you on that." Then get depressed, go to the library, research on the internet, don't sleep, become and expert over night. - Say "I am not familiar with that detail, but I will be shortly." - Say "I am not an expert, but here is what I think." - Find a starting point, and present it as the answer. {Starting points are: |type="[]"} - defined by the made objects for reverse engineering - found in the past to enable reverse engineering + found in past documentation to enable forward engineering - created with the vision of something totally new {The Reverse Engineering goal at a minimum is: |type="[]"} - incrementally improving on past success + figuring out design (function) from the object (form) itself rather than documentation about the object - provide scaffolding for forward engineering - creating something totally new {Reverse Engineering replaces: |type="[]"} + finding starting points + searching the internet - forward engineering - fixing things {The number of starting points is increasing: |type="[]"} + in number for the same technology + because the human species's body of knowledge is increasing - because we all spell differently - because the youtube generation has a bad attitude {Engineering students ideally want starting points determined by: |type="[]"} - themselves, depending upon what they want to learn - teacher, depending upon what they want to cover - textbook, depending which one has been assigned + themselves, depending upon the project they are attempting at the moment - youtube and internet, depending upon what can be found