Engineering philosophy

I am an engineer

I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer,
born under the second law of thermodynamics,
steeped in the steam tables,
in love with free-body diagrams,
transformed by Laplace,
and propelled by compressible flow.
- Neil Armstrong, The Man on the moon

Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?)

In general we look for a new law by the following process.
First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to Nature, with experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.
It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is—if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong.
That’s all there is to it.
- Richard Feynman

The hands of engineers

We’re in the hands of engineers. … All major changes are like death.
You can’t see what is on the other side until you get there
- Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

Certainty?

I’m not sure…
- Socrates

Uncertainty

I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of uncertainty about different things. But I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don’t know anything about. I don’t feel frightened not knowing things.
- Professor Richard Feynman

Reducing uncertainty

Reducing uncertainty is a costly business.
- Peter L. Bernstein
Against the Gods

Being right

I've decided that I am right 97% of the time.
So, I don't worry about the other 4% of the time.
- unknown

Ignorance

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. 
- Martin Luther King

To succeed in life

… you need two things:
Ignorance and confidence
- Mark Twain

Approximation

Far better an approximate answer to the right question ...
than an exact answer to the wrong question.
- John Tukey, 1950s

Common sense

Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen.
- A. Einstein

Debugging

There is no such thing as the last bug in a program.
There are no stubborn bugs.
There are only stubborn Debuggers.
- unknown

Statistics

Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say.
- William W. Watt

Statistics

What is the collective noun for a group of statisticians?
A quarrel.
- unknown

One method

I have only one method that I recommend extensively…
it’s called think before you write.
- Richard Hamming

Smile in the face of adversity

it costs nothing to grin
- Winston Churchill

Honesty

There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition: there are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.
- Mark Twain

Becoming an engineer

I was originally supposed to become an engineer,
but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.”
- Albert Einstein

Purpose

You are here to enrich the world. And you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”
Woodrow Wilson

Prediction

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
- Neils Bohr

Communication

What we have here is a failure to communicate…
- Captain, Road Prison 36 to Cool Hand Luke

Problems

Engineers like to solve problems.
If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.”
- Scott Adams

Solving problems

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.
- Albert Einstein

Goals

I do not count myself to have apprehended;
but one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal
- Philippians 3:14

Planning

Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it.
- Habbakuk 2:2 KJV

Plans

Plans are nothing.
Planning is everything.
- General Dwight D Eisenhower

Giving and getting

Much is required from those to whom much is given,
and much more is required from those to whom much more is given
- Luke 12:48

The future

In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.
The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition

The biggest fool

... is the one who merely does his work supremely well, without attending to appearance.
- Michael Korda

Ideas

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea if it’s the only one you have.”
Emil-Auguste Chartier

Fortunate

Fortunate, who was able to know the causes of things
- Virgil

Swearing

Swearing is the laxative which purges the soul
- Heinz Knoke
Luftwaffe flying ace

Swearing

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."
- Mark Twain

Learning

If a cat sits down on a hot stove lid it won’t ever again sit down on a hot stove lid,
But it also won’t sit down on a cold stove lid.
- Mark Twain

Rationalizing

Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.
- Robert Heinlien

Criticism

Don’t worry about criticism from people you wouldn’t seek advice from.
- Dabo Sweeney, and many others

Criticism

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt

What can you do

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

• Theodore Roosevelt

Pray

Pray as if God will take care of all;
act as if all is up to you.

• Ignatius

The great secret

I shall tell you a great secret, my friend.  Do not wait for the final judgement.  It takes place every day.

• Camus

Good luck

I just want to say good luck and we're all counting on you.
- Dr. Rumack
Airplane (the movie)