10 of my Engg. Insights for the Year

I suppose its that time of the year where a post that you make needs to reflect some of the momentousness of the occasion (though you're most probably reading this too late). So, I decided I might as well yield to such an urge and am listing 10 of the most profound insights I've had this year in my professional life as an engineer that I will be taking into the new decade. but Let me start off by allaying your fears that they don't really let me do anything that's as dangerous as what you're about to read... yet.

Again, as in my previous post about engineering, not all of the following is exaggeration...

1) In engineering, 'competence' is getting through drudgery without blowing stuff up, 'enterprise' is competence whilst pretending you're enjoying all of it, and 'experience' is the late realization that neither of the above matters.

2) In engineering, 'humility' is what you experience when you read that one of the 15000 or so 1/4" inch valves you specified in your project costs more than your annual gross income.

3) Engineering is about doing the right thing at the right time and at the right place... but none of that is as important as NOT being anywhere near the thing as its being turned on.

4) A corollary of (3) above is that the world would be a lot safer if it were mandated that the responsible engineer throws the switch for the first time... though leaving it to politicians is gratifying.

5) A poor design is one that blows up in your face; a 'cost-effective' design is one where you know how much time you have to secure payment for it before it goes off.

6) You can always spot a trainee by how close he stands to the bypass valve.

7) I think it says volumes about the hazards of engineering that unlike other professions of erudite learning (law, medicine etc.) , a career in it is never referred to as 'practice'.

8) If everything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong, I challenge Mr. Muphy to explain how so much of my design is still standing.

9) Any engineer worth his salt knows that you can get further with super-glue and prayer, than you can with just prayer.

10) A layman marvels at the workings of a contraption as its engineer does in that its working.