F
On Jul 28, 9:23 pm, Chalo <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> In my experience working with a couple of hotshot high-tech startups,
> some engineers are able to accept suggestions from a "laborer", and
> some just can't for whatever reason. It seems like a pass/fail issue
> of basic engineering competence to me, but then... I'm not in
> management.
>
> If a design engineer can't take suggestions from someone below his
> station, then it doesn't really matter whether there is a functioning
> feedback mechanism or not. The problem is partly technological, as
> you point out, and partly cultural. If we as a technological society
> could surmount it, I bet we could resume our former status as the best
> innovators in the world. But as our whole society becomes more
> stratified, rank becomes more important and ability less so. The
> decadence of technology turns out to be just another aspect of the
> decline of empire.
The ability to take suggestions from a "laborer" (or machinist, or
welder, or tool & die man, etc.) is probably more of a personal
characteristic than anything else.
There are certainly engineers who lack that ability, or lack any skill
at getting along with other factory workers, and who are less
effective as a result. But the problem of arrogance really can go
both ways. That is, I've seen engineers having to deal with tradesmen
who mistakenly thought they knew a lot more than the engineers about a
particular problem. The tradesmen were not only undiplomatic, but
literally mocking in their presentation of their mistaken
"knowledge." And it didn't seem to phase them when they were proven
wrong.
Nobody can be expert in everything, and no educational program has the
time to teach everything. Learning has to continue long beyond formal
education - ideally, until the end of one's life - and people do need
to learn from lots of different folks, including those with less
prestigious job titles.
But both the engineer and the craftsman need to realize that the
other, if competent, has knowledge he lacks. Ditto the physician and
physical therapist, the lawyer and the secretary, etc.
- Frank Krygowski
>
> In my experience working with a couple of hotshot high-tech startups,
> some engineers are able to accept suggestions from a "laborer", and
> some just can't for whatever reason. It seems like a pass/fail issue
> of basic engineering competence to me, but then... I'm not in
> management.
>
> If a design engineer can't take suggestions from someone below his
> station, then it doesn't really matter whether there is a functioning
> feedback mechanism or not. The problem is partly technological, as
> you point out, and partly cultural. If we as a technological society
> could surmount it, I bet we could resume our former status as the best
> innovators in the world. But as our whole society becomes more
> stratified, rank becomes more important and ability less so. The
> decadence of technology turns out to be just another aspect of the
> decline of empire.
The ability to take suggestions from a "laborer" (or machinist, or
welder, or tool & die man, etc.) is probably more of a personal
characteristic than anything else.
There are certainly engineers who lack that ability, or lack any skill
at getting along with other factory workers, and who are less
effective as a result. But the problem of arrogance really can go
both ways. That is, I've seen engineers having to deal with tradesmen
who mistakenly thought they knew a lot more than the engineers about a
particular problem. The tradesmen were not only undiplomatic, but
literally mocking in their presentation of their mistaken
"knowledge." And it didn't seem to phase them when they were proven
wrong.
Nobody can be expert in everything, and no educational program has the
time to teach everything. Learning has to continue long beyond formal
education - ideally, until the end of one's life - and people do need
to learn from lots of different folks, including those with less
prestigious job titles.
But both the engineer and the craftsman need to realize that the
other, if competent, has knowledge he lacks. Ditto the physician and
physical therapist, the lawyer and the secretary, etc.
- Frank Krygowski