The things I remember from my engineering career is all the wondrous machines and cool shit associated with them. The brilliance, expertise, and enthusiasm of truly talented people doing the cool shit. And world travel. Not so much my evolution into management. You’re right, as time went on we had to do more mundane shit thus defocusing our expertise. When I started you did real mind to pen to paper stuff. We had technically degreed aides. Secretaries. Personal IT, travel, and purchase agents. These gradually disappeared. On the other hand the spoken word of the engineer in charge of a project increased. But as you point out, so did the fiefdoms intending to keep that in check.
I took to building things without looking anything up about how to do them in advance. Sound crazy? Yes maybe, definitely inefficient, but I get to independently figure out and discover stuff that way and it makes a fairly run of the mill project like building a weird shed the way I want a lot more interesting. And as a plus I’ve made some cool stuff and gotten better at whittling for when my processes dont work and I have to make them work anyway by whittling some random thing. Also, contraptions. Contraptions are AWESOME. Live that wallace and grommet/swiss family robinson life—it’s a good one.
You mentioned a couple times that you learned some good ideas from Chinese engineers. What are some of the things that Americans could learn from China about engineering?
They do more due diligence work technically and business wise before committing to a project. I worked with a partner office of my USA company which then farmed projects out to individual factories. When they sent back a cost number you could tell that it wasn’t just a quick estimate, it took into account subtle manufacturability factors, how much sales promise the design has and your past working relationship with the factory.
They reward success immediately and with money. The manager of the team at the partner office in China would issue direct payments to his employees at critical milestones and successes. He was shocked that there was no similar system in the USA and that the success of my work had little bearing on my career or finances.
They reward success immediately and with money. The manager of the team at the partner office in China would issue direct payments to his employees at critical milestones and successes. He was shocked that there was no similar system in the USA and that the success of my work had little bearing on my career or finances.
This is why the west is losing. I would be willing to work for less money if my efforts and achievements were recognized and rewarded. Studies have shown that more than salary, a sour relationship with management is the leading cause of people quitting jobs.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. I was having a similar conversation with someone in my industry the other day. American firms are curiously resistant to profit-sharing, even though this would be an easy way to boost productivity and retain talent. At every business I’ve worked at, my paycheck was the same regardless of whether the project succeeded or not.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing, or maybe there are HR-related hurdles. Less-successful teams could raise a fuss about getting paid less, and if there is any difference in the gender or racial composition of the teams, there would potentially be grounds for a lawsuit.
I would expect it is a managerialism thing in the US, one can expect those who serve is managerial position (or at least has management position) in China would be those who came with engineering background themselves, not MBAs or finance etc
The things I remember from my engineering career is all the wondrous machines and cool shit associated with them. The brilliance, expertise, and enthusiasm of truly talented people doing the cool shit. And world travel. Not so much my evolution into management. You’re right, as time went on we had to do more mundane shit thus defocusing our expertise. When I started you did real mind to pen to paper stuff. We had technically degreed aides. Secretaries. Personal IT, travel, and purchase agents. These gradually disappeared. On the other hand the spoken word of the engineer in charge of a project increased. But as you point out, so did the fiefdoms intending to keep that in check.
I took to building things without looking anything up about how to do them in advance. Sound crazy? Yes maybe, definitely inefficient, but I get to independently figure out and discover stuff that way and it makes a fairly run of the mill project like building a weird shed the way I want a lot more interesting. And as a plus I’ve made some cool stuff and gotten better at whittling for when my processes dont work and I have to make them work anyway by whittling some random thing. Also, contraptions. Contraptions are AWESOME. Live that wallace and grommet/swiss family robinson life—it’s a good one.
My wife still doesnt know I do things this way, she just thinks I sometimes take a long time.
They are an incurious bunch aren’t they?
#winning
You mentioned a couple times that you learned some good ideas from Chinese engineers. What are some of the things that Americans could learn from China about engineering?
They do more due diligence work technically and business wise before committing to a project. I worked with a partner office of my USA company which then farmed projects out to individual factories. When they sent back a cost number you could tell that it wasn’t just a quick estimate, it took into account subtle manufacturability factors, how much sales promise the design has and your past working relationship with the factory.
They reward success immediately and with money. The manager of the team at the partner office in China would issue direct payments to his employees at critical milestones and successes. He was shocked that there was no similar system in the USA and that the success of my work had little bearing on my career or finances.
They reward success immediately and with money. The manager of the team at the partner office in China would issue direct payments to his employees at critical milestones and successes. He was shocked that there was no similar system in the USA and that the success of my work had little bearing on my career or finances.
This is why the west is losing. I would be willing to work for less money if my efforts and achievements were recognized and rewarded. Studies have shown that more than salary, a sour relationship with management is the leading cause of people quitting jobs.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. I was having a similar conversation with someone in my industry the other day. American firms are curiously resistant to profit-sharing, even though this would be an easy way to boost productivity and retain talent. At every business I’ve worked at, my paycheck was the same regardless of whether the project succeeded or not.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing, or maybe there are HR-related hurdles. Less-successful teams could raise a fuss about getting paid less, and if there is any difference in the gender or racial composition of the teams, there would potentially be grounds for a lawsuit.
I would expect it is a managerialism thing in the US, one can expect those who serve is managerial position (or at least has management position) in China would be those who came with engineering background themselves, not MBAs or finance etc
So does that explain the greediness