Those #+%^ engineers!

[BravoXray]

How about some engineer comedy?

 

[paulsharvey]

Kinda off, but about engineers... I used to hate them, and now, I get along fine with most. Part might have been age, but I do think engineers have changed over the years. Starting in construction, some grades wouldn't work, mark up the plans with new driveway grades and fax then EOR to get approval. He looses his dang mind that a 25 year old superintendent dared change his plans. He changed all of my grades by like 0.1 or so, and send them back, with a smart butt response.

Thats the type I dealt with at first.

Then, during a slow period at the county, me and another inspector are given busy work of looking at 177 failing roads in our county, get lane miles, widths, cross drains, ect. Get back, and hand him the info on day 1; "yeah, great, I can get that on Google Earth, what do we need to do? Level and over lay, chip seal, micro pave, reclaim in place?" Was a guy in maybe mid 40s, PE. that actually wanted someone's opinion.

Nowadays, I see that mostly as the norm. Now, I kinda caution people, you Think the design is wrong/stupid, but there might be a reason. Most of the old "im the engineer, dont question anything" have died off, and the newer generation is much more open to opinions. Also part, im not a 25 year old superintendent anymore.

Had a job about 18 months ago, me, contractor and some other guys meet, engineer is there, and it doesnt make sense. Site is already Well above all the surrounding properties, and they are picking it up 3 ft more, making driveway, ADA, ect very very tight, like has to Perfect to work. I ask, any reason to pick this entire site up, seems like rising 1 or 2 ft would be fine? Yeah, its 10 acres, but to make the free-board on the pond work, with only using 5 of the 10 acres, he had to pick up the site. Owner wanted to make sure the other 5 wasnt needed for ponds, so he could sell the remainer.

Point being, seemed dumb, but there was a reason. So, they spend $30,000 importing fill; but you can sell the 5 acres of commercial property left over for $100k.

 

[paulsharvey]

In my daily experience now, its not at all unusual to ask an engineer what they think of a problem, or somethings that not right, and them ask "do you think it will work",

 

[paulsharvey]

My niece is working towards a mechanical engineering degree, and minoring in electric. Both good fields, even if she is the "wants to save the world" stage, wanting to design renewable engineer systems. I know not all folks that get mechanical or electric engineering degrees bother to become a PE, but ive pointed out to her, a PE is a PE. You can SnS shed truss plans in a pinch; get the EIT and PE, even if you dont plan on using them.

 

[WinterDeere]

Kinda off, but about engineers... I used to hate them, and now, I get along fine with most. Part might have been age, but I do think engineers have changed over the years.

They have. Gen-X and older tend to be more competitive, whereas the Millenials and younger tend to be much more collaborative. What's interesting is that I'm old enough to work with some pre-Boomers ("Silent Generation"?), and they were also less competitive and more collaborative than the Boomers thru Gen-X that were my primary peers.

There's good and bad in both modes, but of course the more collaborative types make for a more relaxed and less confrontational working relationship.

He looses his dang mind that a 25 year old superintendent dared change his plans. He changed all of my grades by like 0.1 or so, and send them back, with a smart butt response.

I worked with A-holes like this. Usually a sign of someone with weak technical skills, when they bristle over having to make a few changes, or feel unnecessarily threatened over having their numbers questioned or challenged.

I know not all folks that get mechanical or electric engineering degrees bother to become a PE, but ive pointed out to her, a PE is a PE.

It's going to depend on the industry. In my world of manufacturing and R&D, no one gets a PE. To date, I can only recall one PE among all of my prior colleagues, and everyone would constantly ask the guy why he got a PE.

But my father worked in civil and plant engineering (factories, not flowers), and he and every engineer on his staff had to have a PE in each state in which they operated. Very different industry.

 

[jjeff]

More to do with me being a bull in China shop and wannabe diy plumber, installing a simple second shower Wand in my cabins upstairs shower first one I replaced was all metal and fine when I built the place but I tiled surround around top of fiberglass shower walls recently so I replaced shower wand over tightened cracked the plastic screw in fitting to shower down spout think I learned my lesson? nope cracked second new shower wand plastic screw in fitting. Less is more for cripes sakes. Feel I'm spending our families retirement fund in shower wands lol. Third time's a charm I hope. Wish I could find one with a metal screw in fitting to shower down spout coming out of wall. Why does the the shower engineer dept ,and bean counters feel the need to use so much plastic on a device that's used daily? Why did I replace the first all metal fitting wand? Maybe I can retro fit existing components of original wand or just reinstall all metal old fitting and be done with it.

I guess Third times a charm replaced cheap plastic shower wand with a new cheap plastic shower wand and this time I put away the pipe wrench only hand tightening it using my hands only plus the rubber washer /gasket and no cracks or leaks for now. I Searched local Hardware stores opening the boxes of more expensive ones thinking I'd see a metal coupler to screw on shower spout, nope all plastic I couldn't find one anywhere local anyway. It works for a few years. I really dislike supporting companies that are lackluster in making quality bathroom components. Oh well.

 

[dadohead]

It's going to depend on the industry. In my world of manufacturing and R&D, no one gets a PE. To date, I can only recall one PE among all of my prior colleagues, and everyone would constantly ask the guy why he got a PE.

I was a design engineer and got a PE. It was just a personal goal. I really never needed it. The legal dept would look for PE's if they needed someone to testify. Typically though, they'd hire an outside "expert" and have them get all the background from staff engineers. Fine by me! Just before retiring they started requiring annual re-testing to maintain the certification.... I let mine drop.

 

[KennyG]

I had to have a PE for my job. It got to be a nuisance when they started requiring continuing education credits (to support training companies) and ethics courses (to please the knee jerk politicians).

 

[kenmbz]

My Jeep GC has HID headlights, they need to be replaced every 3-4 years.
The driver I only had to replace one on one side, that is the item you need to remove the whole front bumper and grill assembly to replace to get to the one screw that allows the headlight assembly to be removed since the driver is on the bottom of the headlight assembly instead of on top.

 

[WinterDeere]

My Jeep GC has HID headlights, they need to be replaced every 3-4 years.
The driver I only had to replace one on one side, that is the item you need to remove the whole front bumper and grill assembly to replace to get to the one screw that allows the headlight assembly to be removed since the driver is on the bottom of the headlight assembly instead of on top.

That's really surprising. I have HID's in two of my Dodges, likely many of the same components as Jeep, one is 9 years old and zero issues. I also had HID's in a Volvo that we kept for 12 years and something like 200k miles! Zero issues.

 

[BravoXray]

That's really surprising. I have HID's in two of my Dodges, likely many of the same components as Jeep, one is 9 years old and zero issues. I also had HID's in a Volvo that we kept for 12 years and something like 200k miles! Zero issues.

Lifespan probably depends a lot on how many hours they are used, not calendar age.

 

[subhunter]

I'd buy this engineer a beer or 3.