On 10/22/2010 1:34 AM, scott wrote:
>> Engineers are less likely to run into such situations, admittedly, but
>> they instead have a very bad habit of showing up in someone "else's"
>> work shop, to tell them that their expertise as an engineer **backs**
>> their religion, which in turn undermines the other guys entire
>> discipline.
>
> Huh, sorry I have no idea what you mean by that, and also I don't know
> any engineers that work in a workshop, nor any that preach their
> religious beliefs in the workplace.
>
Seriously? You think I mean "literal" workshop, or I am talking about 
sermons, rather than, say, showing up, for example, on the blog of a 
well known biologist, where the guy *talks* about his, and other 
people's work, and proceeds to say, "I don't believe in evolution. As an 
engineer, I know everything *must* have a designer, and therefor I 
believe god did it, not some random process!". Other than failing to use 
comic sans, this is almost a direct quote of at least 4-5 of the last 
batch of engineers that have sporadically shown up to babble about how 
they know more about genetics than an actual geneticist. This, often, 
includes expounding on how well "designed" the genome, or the body, is, 
when both look more like they where invented by the gnomes in D&D (extra 
gears, things that don't work, or do what they seem like they should, or 
do things that are not intended, and, if you are unlucky, explode) than 
anything a competent engineer would build. Yet, if they happen to show 
up to whine about Darwin, they invariable think the whole thing looks 
like it was made by the most crafty, best, and wondrous, designer in all 
universes. Mind, I have no evidence that the only engineers that show up 
to babble this stuff are not all D&D gnomes either. It would explain 
some things... lol

>> A problem that wouldn't be so annoying, except that, as I stated in
>> the other post, sometimes you can't *make* progress in other
>> disciplines without referencing things in others, and.. well.. What
>> happens when you consult an engineer on something in biology, and the
>> engineer does 100% perfect work in engineering, but rejects the
>> underlying principles *of* the biology they are being asked to lend
>> their own expertise on?
>
> You can't force people to work on things they don't want to. If someone
> has chosen to be an engineer on PC monitors for example, you can't
> expect them to willingly give advice on how to design a missile or
> engineer a system to clone humans. If you ask someone advice out of
> their field of work, you have to expect there might be a conflict,
> especially for sensitive subjects.
>

Hardly a case of them working on things they don't "want" to. They might 
want to do so, but have a completely batshit insane view of how to get 
to the result. You know, sort of like the movie trope of the weirdo 
that, in answer to, "We need to build a better space ship.", answers, 
"Oh great! In a past life I reverse engineered alien space ships for 
Pharaoh Tutankhamen!" One only **hopes** that their defect is *that* 
obvious, when starting the project. This is hardly a certainty though. A 
few people have described ending up on teams where they where making 
fair progress, except for the one nut in the group, who kept insisting 
that they should use some totally absurd thing to get it done. 
Sometimes, this person isn't one you can, for internal political 
reasons, or the funder, etc., get rid up. And, they get to go to their 
next job, with the recommendation of some clown who never directly dealt 
with the project, doesn't know he was a liability, but is perfectly 
happy to say, "Yep. Joker A. Floop worked with the project for 12 
months, until completion."

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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