The ongoing adventures of a boy who never grew out of making and playing with plastic model kits (and even some metal ones too). Also a wargamer in search of the perfect set of wargaming rules for WWII Land and 20th Century Naval campaigns.
Sounds like what engineers do all over the world! :-)
Seriously, problem-solving is what engineers are trained for. I am a (computer science) professor at a large research university, and it's sometimes that is often very noticeable when discussing matters with colleagues from other non-engineering schools or departments. They for too long remain focus on discussing what has caused the problem, and who or what is to blame for it etc. etc, while engineers often take a position "the problem is here, it doesn't matter how it came about, but let's solve it in a pragmatic manner".
On the other hand, it's certainly true that some engineers fall in love with a specific solution, hence the old adage "... a solution in search of a problem". But sometimes you need that as well, otherwise science wouldn't advance that much.
I agree with a lot of your sentiments and observations Noting that a genuine holistic solution is very hard to achieve
I am now in the Public side of the Commercial world now having been on the academic side of the coin too (PhD and all that entails)
The "solution that is looking for a problem" and the "researcher who views the world merely as a reflection of their research" are classical issues I saw (fell into myself) in academia.
Likewise there is Commercially the unwillingness to "unpick code" (not just refactoring but deep review of code that 'on the surface' seem to work well enough) and throw away code [as in good code that has bad utility] once written, (somehow it finds itself a use but is really a part of the problem).
The only last point I can make is that there are many businesses I have seen out there that make their 'business' to help out other businesses persist with their bad (historical) solutions without "going back to the problem" - "some problems seem to be interpreted as, how do we make money out of this!".
Sounds like what engineers do all over the world! :-)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, problem-solving is what engineers are trained for. I am a (computer science) professor at a large research university, and it's sometimes that is often very noticeable when discussing matters with colleagues from other non-engineering schools or departments. They for too long remain focus on discussing what has caused the problem, and who or what is to blame for it etc. etc, while engineers often take a position "the problem is here, it doesn't matter how it came about, but let's solve it in a pragmatic manner".
On the other hand, it's certainly true that some engineers fall in love with a specific solution, hence the old adage "... a solution in search of a problem". But sometimes you need that as well, otherwise science wouldn't advance that much.
Thanks for your reply Phil
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of your sentiments and observations
Noting that a genuine holistic solution is very hard to achieve
I am now in the Public side of the Commercial world now having been on the academic side of the coin too (PhD and all that entails)
The "solution that is looking for a problem" and the "researcher who views the world merely as a reflection of their research" are classical issues I saw (fell into myself) in academia.
Likewise there is Commercially the unwillingness to "unpick code" (not just refactoring but deep review of code that 'on the surface' seem to work well enough) and throw away code [as in good code that has bad utility] once written, (somehow it finds itself a use but is really a part of the problem).
The only last point I can make is that there are many businesses I have seen out there that make their 'business' to help out other businesses persist with their bad (historical) solutions without "going back to the problem" - "some problems seem to be interpreted as, how do we make money out of this!".
Demi-rant over
Thanks
Mark