Tony D Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Up to aboutfour hours ago, I dismissed the blase airline instructions given by the flight attendants. You know, the ones that, on Southwest at least have taken on a joking tilt: "If you don't know how to put on a seat belt, you deserve to bounce around the plane if we crash, please try not to hit any of the other passengers!" Today, as I was leaving on a Lufthansa flight from Morocco, the guy in the seat next to me was fumbling with the seat belt... Now, he wasn't a fat, corpulent bugger like me. He was not struggling to get the latch to reach the clasp. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he repeatedly, for a period of two minutes, tried inserting the latch into the 'lift to release' end of the buckle assembly. I mean, trying in earnest and getting really flustered because it wasn't catching! It wasn't until the attendant clicked the seatbelt in the 'fasten your seat belt by putting the latch into the buckle so, and releas by lifting so...' demonstration. She had actually did it one time, and he stopped and watched it the second time, then rearranged and fit his buckle. Now, I was trying reallllllly hard to be 'culturally sensitive' save for the guy was wearing a suit that cost more than most of the cars I've bought recently... During the flight, we strike up a conversation... I'm expecting him to be some sort of marketing guy, you know? Nhap! He's 'an engineer'---I figure 'engineer' in a broad sense of the European Definition like a guy that works on stuff. No, the guy is an 'Engineering Manager in Charge of Upgrade Projects' at a local refinery in Morocco. Mechanical Engineer.... I am aghast. My only consolation was that I told myself that, as a manager, he only supervises people and hopefully the people he supervises know which way the buckles are supposed to go... I'm not shocked by much...but this one set me back a bit. Talk about 'Non-Tech, Off Topic'---how's that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 It takes all kinds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperPickle Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Y'know, I used to be one of those people that rolled there eyes whenever they went through the routine, wondering why they even bothered going through the details we'd all heard again and again. Until I flew Emirates Air Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4xwellmurd3r Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 wow...just...wow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Yeah you meet some interesting people on flights, especially international. But this does reaffirm my ability/desire to become a ME. If he can, anyone can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Globerunner513 Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Well you know, they say Einstein never tied his own shoes... (or something like that lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogriz91 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Mechanical engineer in Morocco...lube rack guy at ExpressLube in the States? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Globerunner513 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 LOL I worked at an ExpressLube...hrmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 I had a coworker that was an Industrial Engineer, working with me, he was going for his masters in ME. One day at work he was studying for an exam, or thesis, or something, and he called me over to his cubicle and asked me what's the difference between a screw and a bolt. Now, mind you, I grew up in a machine shop and operated milling machines at age 8 so I was slightly ahead of the game when I got my ME degree, but this guy opened up my eyes. He also had some problems to solve involving part design simplification. He could not for the life of him figure it out. I looked at the parts and had them instantly redrawn with about half the machining steps taken out of them. It's not "what you know" anymore... I am convinced that the brain is a bucket. You spend the early years learning common sense, the middle years learning facts, the later years learning a specialty. Somewhere North of grad school comes time to make more room in the bucket; out goes the common sense. Learn to kiss ass, you are now management material! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proxlamus© Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 I've noticed some of the schools valedictorians and incredibly talented engineers and unbelievably gifted individuals have no "street sense" I've always been blown away how dumb and retarded they can be. Even the simplest tasks in life and everyday common sense occurrences seem close to impossible. Book smart but that's it. They be street stupid ha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woldson Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 I've come to the conclusion that intelligence breaks down essentially into 3 categories. 1. The ability to remember. (nothing more, nothing less) 2. The ability to understand. (some call this common sense, common it is not) 3. The ability to use what was remembered to understand, then associate. Now to illustrate: 1. Book smart, info in, info out. 2. With no prior knowledge understand what is before you. 3. With no prior knowledge understand what is before you and improve upon it. This is a personal observation given my own experience. I'm not fond of the first group because I know that they know, but they can not adapt the information. You can literaly walk them through a series of simple questions they answer correctly until the end that a child could get and..... nothing, except "don't treat me like a child and just tell me!" Second group I like a lot, even with out a great memory to support there skill, you can always tell they are tiring. You just have to fill in blanks a bit. Third group, at its hight, wise, patience, always learning and improving. Quite remarkable, nothing is not without interest to them. I see a lot of them here, which is why this is the largest group that I associate freely with. Probably in my life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Then there are the Internet engineers that hang out on car forums... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 How do I put this? Nobody has all the answers and nobody knows everything. I will take a person that has an well thought out theory, over a straight unexplained answer any day. The thought process often has more value than the answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIM73240Z Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 My step son is book smart. 17 yrs old, jr in college. Working on a engineering degree to be a structural engineer. Try to get him to understand street concepts is an entirely different thing. In no way is he able to do most simple tasks that one does in life. Can not figure out a bus schedule to get around. What is so hard about that. Yes it takes all kinds and i am another one that tends to gravitate away from the book smart people to the street smart people. Both are just as smart as the other but one can APPLY what they have learned, and they usually learned from trial and error at their own expence. When your money is on the line, you tend to learn the correct way rather quickly. The apprentise had the "Street smarts vs the Book smarts" season and i remeber Trump getting on one of the street people because he said there is nothing wrong with a college education. Your right, however, if you cannot apply what you have learned in college, what good are you? jimbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woldson Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Both the last two posts are contained in my theroy. What is a internet engineer? I did find this: http://www.cie.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 What is a internet engineer? Someone who read something on the internet that had these two items: 1. A car. 2. Some math. They now feel they are a Certified Internet Automotive Engineer and are qualified to comment on all things automotive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 They now feel they are a Certified Internet Automotive Engineer and are qualified to comment on all things automotive. I guess I'm one of those, except the math was pretty minimal in my case. As to the school and intelligence idea, I think the ability to remember is tested too much and the ability to think is not tested enough. In the real world, the ability to remember is not as important, because obscure facts can be looked up, but the ability to analyze and actually think through a problem is invaluable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six_Shooter Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 I've come to the conclusion that intelligence breaks down essentially into 3 categories.1. The ability to remember. (nothing more, nothing less) 2. The ability to understand. (some call this common sense, common it is not) 3. The ability to use what was remembered to understand, then associate. Now to illustrate: 1. Book smart, info in, info out. 2. With no prior knowledge understand what is before you. 3. With no prior knowledge understand what is before you and improve upon it. This is a personal observation given my own experience. I'm not fond of the first group because I know that they know, but they can not adapt the information. You can literaly walk them through a series of simple questions they answer correctly until the end that a child could get and..... nothing, except "don't treat me like a child and just tell me!" Second group I like a lot, even with out a great memory to support there skill, you can always tell they are tiring. You just have to fill in blanks a bit. Third group, at its hight, wise, patience, always learning and improving. Quite remarkable, nothing is not without interest to them. I see a lot of them here, which is why this is the largest group that I associate freely with. Probably in my life. Interesting. I can see the same parralels with people I have met. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six_Shooter Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 How do I put this? Nobody has all the answers and nobody knows everything. I will take a person that has an well thought out theory, over a straight unexplained answer any day. The thought process often has more value than the answer. Interesting, I'm the opposite. I'll take a correect answer with no "work" to get there, since a wrong answer is still a wrong answer and a wrong answer is of no value in the real world. What I find is that the people who can get the correct answer without the "work" can generally with a bit of help explain how they got there, if the "work" to get to the answer is as important as the answer itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six_Shooter Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 I guess I'm one of those, except the math was pretty minimal in my case. As to the school and intelligence idea, I think the ability to remember is tested too much and the ability to think is not tested enough. In the real world, the ability to remember is not as important, because obscure facts can be looked up, but the ability to analyze and actually think through a problem is invaluable. That's another interesting observation, and one I'll have to agree completly with. I've met too many people that can spout off lots of stats and remembered information but have no clue how to apply them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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