Tag Archives: value added

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Business, Communication, Engineering Mindset

Chris has talked before about how engineers tend to think highly of people in “value-add” professions. At least as perceived by engineers, if you are contributing something useful, that contribution is respected. But perception of value is a very tricky thing – two people in very different fields may both be doing work that is important, but neither one may appreciate the other. I’ve been considering value from another angle – instead of looking at how much you are adding with your skills, what happens if you look at how hard your skills are to take advantage of? Recently I watched a situation unfold where two people involved in a project – one an engineer, one a businessman – had a falling out and canceled the project they were working on together. Often it is just as instructive about people and their character and values to observe what happens when things go…

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Engineering Mindset

I decided to try taking our topic for the week–the perception of engineers and the field of engineering–and turn it on its head: What do engineers think of the rest of the world? Some would say, “Who cares?”. Duly noted. If you don’t think engineers are worthwhile, you probably don’t care what they think of you or anyone else. Of course, if you don’t think engineers are worthwhile, you’re probably on the wrong site/side of town. Hint: you’re surrounded, get out while you can. The engineers I’ve met over the years, both in my career and around the web, have generally been quite a benevolent people. In general, we don’t hold ourselves above other professions because we understand systems, including social systems (though some would say engineers are lacking social skills, stepping back and looking at social systems seems different somehow). For example, an engineer might look at a widget…

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