Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Oh my goodness

Look at all this machinist stuff...



That's a regret in my life.  If I wasn't so sewn up in military science and officer training and I was a bit better in math and science, I might have stuck out the Engineering degree instead of switching to History.

In a perfect world, I'd be a double major.  Mechanical Engineering and History. 

But, alas, 5 hour calculus was a bridge too far.  I'd have tackled it, with a bit more time, successfully, but it isn't for more time.  It's a weed out class.  You have the talent to pass it, or, preferably, excel at it, and do it with a marginal instructor, then you are cut out for engineering.

But I had more than enough mat to be a machinist hand!.  Again, born 60+ years too late. 

I am fortunate to have the wherewithal that I can afford to take class in this stuff.  But it's just learning.  And just scratching the surface.  It's not a life in it, a career in it. 

And if it was a career it might just be a mere job.  And my passion for it would fade.  Like with brewing when I was a professional brewmaster.   (Which I'd still be if job were plentiful and pay better 20 year ago.)

1 comment:

Greg Milan said...

I am an engineer.

I hate calculus.

I haven't used calculus in years. It's not that I try to avoid it, it's just that in many engineering roles, it just isn't used alot. I use a lot of statistics, which may involve calculus at some level, but there's software for that.

It's not that I can't work a problem, but like you say, it's not about Tim, it's about weeding people out.

I am beginning to wonder if the weed out courses have damaged our society's potential. We discourage or disqualify people who have valuable skills and ability from pursuing knowledge that can help them be more productive.

I don't want a bunch of bad engineers, but I already know a bunch that made it through school, but aren't good at it because they lack vision or common sense.

The same applies to medicine, too. And other STEM fields.