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Old September 3rd, 2015, 11:26 AM   #1
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Biologists of Ninjette, What do you do?

What is/was your field of study? What're you doing with your degree?
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Old September 3rd, 2015, 12:39 PM   #2
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Is this question directed solely to biologists?
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Old September 3rd, 2015, 01:07 PM   #3
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No love for the other scientists/engineers?
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Old September 3rd, 2015, 01:22 PM   #4
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My mom was a microbiologist?
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Old September 3rd, 2015, 09:46 PM   #5
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Old September 4th, 2015, 08:40 AM   #6
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Old September 4th, 2015, 01:27 PM   #7
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No engineering love? Pfffff! Without application, scientists may as well have studied art.


but really. respect the enginerd.
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Old September 4th, 2015, 04:20 PM   #8
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Old September 4th, 2015, 04:42 PM   #9
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Is this question directed solely to biologists?
Well, I had intended it to be since I'm in my fifth year of college and love doing research. I was really wondering what the people who work in a biology-related field do. I like all science-related fields, though.

There was a thread a while back asking about peoples' jobs and I didn't want to repeat the thread, but I know we've got a lot of new members since then. So then, Ninjette, what do you all do?
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Old September 4th, 2015, 04:54 PM   #10
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Well, I had intended it to be since I'm in my fifth year of college and love doing research. I was really wondering what the people who work in a biology-related field do. I like all science-related fields, though.

There was a thread a while back asking about peoples' jobs and I didn't want to repeat the thread, but I know we've got a lot of new members since then. So then, Ninjette, what do you all do?
Stick to your guns! You want to know. My Mom was a Prof at a medical school
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Old September 7th, 2015, 05:27 PM   #11
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Stick to your guns! You want to know. My Mom was a Prof at a medical school
You said in a previous post that she was a microbiologist, right? I'm really interested in bioinformatics (majoring in marine biology/bioinformatics and learning as much as I can about molecular biology along the way). Did she enjoy it?
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Old September 7th, 2015, 06:23 PM   #12
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Yes she was a Microbiologist. She retired at 78 when she could no longer get NIH grants approved for her lab.
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Old September 7th, 2015, 07:46 PM   #13
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That's awesome that she was able to work so long and enjoy what she did. That's what I'm hoping to be able to do as well.
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Old September 7th, 2015, 11:15 PM   #14
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No engineering love? Pfffff! Without application, scientists may as well have studied art.


but really. respect the enginerd.
Why are all engineering students like this? One time, I told a fellow engineering student "Yeah, I wanted to be a scientist but I'm too dumb so I settled for engineer," and he actually got up and stormed out of class.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 05:11 AM   #15
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Why are all engineering students like this? One time, I told a fellow engineering student "Yeah, I wanted to be a scientist but I'm too dumb so I settled for engineer," and he actually got up and stormed out of class.
Because no one else thinks like us. We're not taught to memorize and regurgitate, we're taught to solve problems and work effectively in teams. This is not limited to technical material.

Have you since changed majors? If not, what year are you in? What university? What classes have you taken? Do you have job experience through internship/co-op? Are you involved in extra curricular teams like Baja/Formula SAE/HPVC/AIAA AERO/others? Have you ever had to work with a non-engineering student in a gen-Ed class? It's painful. Now imagine doing that at work. Still painful.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 06:36 AM   #16
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Why are all engineering students like this? One time, I told a fellow engineering student "Yeah, I wanted to be a scientist but I'm too dumb so I settled for engineer," and he actually got up and stormed out of class.
I don't remember any of my fellow students or teachers feeling this way. In fact it seemed to me that the general consensus was that scientists and engineers go hand in hand. Scientists develop new technologies and engineers come up with a practical use for them.

It was the artists and architects that we always ragged on because they seem to have little understanding of how things actually work in the real world. I remember a discussion I had with an artsy friend of mine who likes cars. He was saying that adding downforce to a car increases its top speed. I tried to explain to him the physics of it and that adding downforce adds drag but he insisted that he knows physics and that I was wrong. Okay
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Old September 8th, 2015, 07:55 AM   #17
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Because no one else thinks like us. We're not taught to memorize and regurgitate, we're taught to solve problems and work effectively in teams. This is not limited to technical material.
This certainly isn't the usual case in my experience, at least not in the eight years I've been teaching engineers physics, but maybe that's endemic of college students in general these days rather than engineering students as a group.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 09:56 AM   #18
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Because no one else thinks like us. We're not taught to memorize and regurgitate, we're taught to solve problems and work effectively in teams. This is not limited to technical material.
I couldn't imagine trying to do any of my lab work without the help of engineers. Literally every piece of equipment I use was made by an engineer. You some smart people.

I thought about going into engineering because I like math/physics but I wanted to study ocean life and the molecular world more. I guess I get some of my engineering fix trying to solve all the problems with my bike, but even then I just end up posting questions on here about it
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Old September 8th, 2015, 10:58 AM   #19
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Have you ever had to work with a non-engineering student in a gen-Ed class? It's painful. Now imagine doing that at work. Still painful.
You know, sometimes it's good to have a different perspective on things. Get too many engineers together stroking each other's egos and you end up with brilliant ideas like Ford's two piece spark plugs, or Chrysler's cab forward design where you had to take half the car apart to replace the battery.

Without scientists we wouldn't have things like carbon fiber, kevlar, or Teflon. Comparing them to artists is a little assanine imo.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 11:14 AM   #20
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This certainly isn't the usual case in my experience, at least not in the eight years I've been teaching engineers physics, but maybe that's endemic of college students in general these days rather than engineering students as a group.
Fair enough! We Millennials don't exactly have a good rep, do we?

I also worked with experienced, older, maintenance engineers the last year at my co-op. It's not about the classes, there's definitely no regurgitation there. Know the concept and apply it, if you don't know the equipment or the issue at hand, take it apart and learn it and ask for a lesson on the technical side. It's all in your own initiative and the resources you pull for support.

Now senior year design classes are completely different than the core class regurgitation of freshman/sophomore/junior year. We're on our own. Prof's are refusing to answer the book questions, and instead are telling us yea or nay on the project, then grading the result based on our own set of constraints and criteria we impose.



I still love Big Bang Theory when they rag on Howard.

Yes, science and engineering go hand in hand. Each without the other would be lacking. I was just poking the bear a little bit in good fun. Seems like we got some good discussion out of it, so that means it worked.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 11:19 AM   #21
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You know, sometimes it's good to have a different perspective on things. Get too many engineers together stroking each other's egos and you end up with brilliant ideas like Ford's two piece spark plugs, or Chrysler's cab forward design where you had to take half the car apart to replace the battery.
Yes, but have you ever had to explain to someone who doesn't have a technical background how a pump pump curve can be interpreted? Once they get the concept of flow vs pressure, then you get the wonderful opportunity to explain the efficiency curve on the same piece of paper. At that point, they usually forget everything they just learned and were just able to reiterate to you about the whole flow vs pressure thing. Lather, rinse, repeat... I'd rather bang my head on the desk. Don't even get me started about congress wanting to make industrial equipment (including pumps) to be more efficient and use less power... to have the goal of improving the efficiency of all pumps in industry by X percent in Y years is also silly because it's not that simple. It just doesn't work that way.

I'd hazard a guess (and some put some money on the table) that the two part plugs or awkward battery placement where not just as simple as the engineering team saying, "let's do this to be different" because that's not sensible. They likely had some strong input from up the food chain that meant they had different constraints on the project and had some very different focus from what they usually did. But there's still a good chance it may have just been a goof from too many stroked ego's, as you said.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 11:59 AM   #22
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I have been doing research for close to 10yrs, been here, been there, some micro work, some immuno work, some electro phys, anatomy, surgical, all typically in conjunction with genetic studies and some stand alone genetic studies of one type or another.

Tip I give for people looking to go down the path of research, Science/biological research is a funny thing, often nothing like you imagined especially when you are going through school. Do the real homework, get out in the real world and see what real researchers do at every level from tech through assistant, associate, scientist and various levels of a Ph D. then make the decisions if it is what you want to do and if so how far you want to go.

If it is still what you want to do.... go where the grant money is and be prepared to alter and adapt to where it goes.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 12:08 PM   #23
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I have been doing research for close to 10yrs, been here, been there, some micro work, some immuno work, some electro phys, anatomy, surgical, all typically in conjunction with genetic studies and some stand alone genetic studies of one type or another.

Tip I give for people looking to go down the path of research, Science/biological research is a funny thing, often nothing like you imagined especially when you are going through school. Do the real homework, get out in the real world and see what real researchers do at every level from tech through assistant, associate, scientist and various levels of a Ph D. then make the decisions if it is what you want to do and if so how far you want to go.

If it is still what you want to do.... go where the grant money is and be prepared to alter and adapt to where it goes.
Thanks for the tip.

I've been doing research in school for a while. If I'm not at work/school, I'm usually at home trying to learn more about my field. What you've done sounds similar to how my schooling has been, what with all the variety and all. In a few weeks I'm going to start working in a genome sequencing lab with a professor that's well known in the community for his work in genetics.

I'm thinking I want to get my PhD after graduating and then teach in a university. I like having access to all the equipment and being around the people that have common interests. Any thoughts? Thanks again!
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Old September 8th, 2015, 12:13 PM   #24
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Yes, but have you ever had to explain to someone who doesn't have a technical background how a pump pump curve can be interpreted? Once they get the concept of flow vs pressure, then you get the wonderful opportunity to explain the efficiency curve on the same piece of paper. At that point, they usually forget everything they just learned and were just able to reiterate to you about the whole flow vs pressure thing. Lather, rinse, repeat... I'd rather bang my head on the desk. Don't even get me started about congress wanting to make industrial equipment (including pumps) to be more efficient and use less power... to have the goal of improving the efficiency of all pumps in industry by X percent in Y years is also silly because it's not that simple. It just doesn't work that way.
How many years experience do you have as an "engineer"?
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Old September 8th, 2015, 12:26 PM   #25
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Thanks for the tip.

I've been doing research in school for a while. If I'm not at work/school, I'm usually at home trying to learn more about my field. What you've done sounds similar to how my schooling has been, what with all the variety and all. In a few weeks I'm going to start working in a genome sequencing lab with a professor that's well known in the community for his work in genetics.

I'm thinking I want to get my PhD after graduating and then teach in a university. I like having access to all the equipment and being around the people that have common interests. Any thoughts? Thanks again!
Sounds like a reasonable plan and you are off to a great start.

Sounds like you have your foot in the door for NGS which is great especially if you are interested in the bioinformatics side of things as well. Being able to not only generate the data but process it all by yourself as well is a life saver.

The great thing about genetics and sequencing is that it can be adapted to just about any particular area of interest so finding grants to apply for and or collaborations is not as difficult as being locked into a specific type of research.

If you want to teach at a university, going for a PhD is not a bad idea, you have an end goal and that is what matters. It's just that I have seen lots of people who are just good at school, and that is what they know just keep going for that next degree. Eventually it gets them a PhD in some type of research, sometimes with a background in something they have little interest in, they just did it because that's what was studied at their university. Next they never thought about what they were going to do with a PhD after they received it, going for it was just want everyone supported them to work towards and they were decent at school so they did it. Now that they have a PhD based in research they realize they don't want to write and apply for grants, and or head their own research and most of these people end up teaching or getting out of the field entirely. All of which is fine but if you didn't want to be a teacher in the beginning it kinda seems like an odd end point for all that hard work.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 12:26 PM   #26
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Yes, but have you ever had to explain to someone who doesn't have a technical background how a pump pump curve...
Yes absolutely, although maybe not that specific example.. I usually give em five minutes and if they're giving me that deer in the headlights look then, aw I'll do it myself.

It goes both ways though. I've also worked with engineers, usually fresh out of school and thinking that they're all that, who don't know a wrench from their ass. Or who tell you to do something because it should work "in theory". You tell them it won't work but they tell you to do it anyway, then when it doesn't work they're sitting there scratching their heads because it should have worked, " in theory".
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Old September 8th, 2015, 12:35 PM   #27
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It goes both ways though. I've also worked with engineers, usually fresh out of school and thinking that they're all that, who don't know a wrench from their ass. Or who tell you to do something because it should work "in theory". You tell them it won't work but they tell you to do it anyway, then when it doesn't work they're sitting there scratching their heads because it should have worked, " in theory".
You expressed exactly what I was thinking to myself.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 12:40 PM   #28
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Ryan, you sound like my old man

A few years before he retired he would always complain about all these new young guns they would bring in where he worked

Young kids would all get tasked with a job to fix, design build something and the young kids would have all these drawings and numbers ect... and bring them to my dad to fab up stuff.

My dad is a man with no education and 50yrs experience making just about anything you can think of would look at the drawings like Question the young new workers about measurements written down for cutting and truing things to specs what were no where near achievable with the tools/equipment the place had on top of simple design flaws

He would say, this isn't going to work, make it, doesn't work, young guns all confused then the kids would tell him some rough dimensions of what they needed and he would just make it like he had done it 100 times.

basically when you get experience working with tools/materials you learn what is possible and what actually works vs what is theoretically possible.

Similar things can be said for skilled wood workers. Ask a skilled wood worker to make you something out of a random type of wood and they will have 100 reasons why not to use that kind of wood and why to use this other type, they just know.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 01:32 PM   #29
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Sounds like a reasonable plan and you are off to a great start.

Sounds like you have your foot in the door for NGS which is great especially if you are interested in the bioinformatics side of things as well. Being able to not only generate the data but process it all by yourself as well is a life saver.

The great thing about genetics and sequencing is that it can be adapted to just about any particular area of interest so finding grants to apply for and or collaborations is not as difficult as being locked into a specific type of research.

If you want to teach at a university, going for a PhD is not a bad idea, you have an end goal and that is what matters. It's just that I have seen lots of people who are just good at school, and that is what they know just keep going for that next degree. Eventually it gets them a PhD in some type of research, sometimes with a background in something they have little interest in, they just did it because that's what was studied at their university. Next they never thought about what they were going to do with a PhD after they received it, going for it was just want everyone supported them to work towards and they were decent at school so they did it. Now that they have a PhD based in research they realize they don't want to write and apply for grants, and or head their own research and most of these people end up teaching or getting out of the field entirely. All of which is fine but if you didn't want to be a teacher in the beginning it kinda seems like an odd end point for all that hard work.
I see a lot of them in the diagnostic 'clinical scientist' role, it's a case of sod the hunting grants game, I'll go into healthcare & get a stable salary

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It goes both ways though. I've also worked with engineers, usually fresh out of school and thinking that they're all that, who don't know a wrench from their ass. Or who tell you to do something because it should work "in theory". You tell them it won't work but they tell you to do it anyway, then when it doesn't work they're sitting there scratching their heads because it should have worked, " in theory".
What's the difference between theory & practice?

In theory they're the same thing, in practice thy're not
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Old September 8th, 2015, 03:12 PM   #30
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If you want to teach at a university, going for a PhD is not a bad idea, you have an end goal and that is what matters. It's just that I have seen lots of people who are just good at school, and that is what they know just keep going for that next degree. Eventually it gets them a PhD in some type of research, sometimes with a background in something they have little interest in, they just did it because that's what was studied at their university. Next they never thought about what they were going to do with a PhD after they received it, going for it was just want everyone supported them to work towards and they were decent at school so they did it. Now that they have a PhD based in research they realize they don't want to write and apply for grants, and or head their own research and most of these people end up teaching or getting out of the field entirely. All of which is fine but if you didn't want to be a teacher in the beginning it kinda seems like an odd end point for all that hard work.
I'm sort of in this boat, but it's not because I'm just "good at school;" I fully intended to pursue a career in astrophysics, but the realities of the financial and administrative climate of the field (and academics as a whole) right now simply made me not want to deal with the hassle, and was even part of a large, multinational research group. Teaching isn't an option because the salaries are much too low if I want any sort of flexibility in my location, so I'm working as an engineer in an industry job (telecommunications) and working on getting myself a job at a research institute that is academically affiliated, but professional in its application. Getting a job in other fields is actually quite difficult with a PhD unless you can find something that caters specifically to your specialization. I'm am basically just a data scientist, but people see that "PhD in Physics with specialization in Astrophysics" and pretty much immediately look the other way regardless of my actual qualifications and any benefits I might bring compared to some 22-23 year old fresh out of college with a BS.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 03:22 PM   #31
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Also, Re: wanting to go to grad school, get ready for a lot of this feeling:

Link to original page on YouTube.

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Old September 8th, 2015, 06:50 PM   #32
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Ryan, you sound like my old man
Your Dad sounds like a real cool guy. Not enough people like that today imo. My Dad is an E.E. with over 30 years of experience now and it's been nice to be able to get advice from him since I decided to go back to school, and starting my new career.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 06:55 PM   #33
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How many years experience do you have as an "engineer"?
invalidation of claim based on character, nicely done.

I've made it clear many times, I'm still a student. I just got off a year as co-op in the maintenance dept. at an oil refinery and learned to do things right the first time for a reason. I've had now 3 years on our ASME HPVC team (one year as president), and a year helping with odds and ends on the SAE Baja team, currently a fully committed member for the season. I've corrected people on this site when they say otherwise but let me restate: I'm still a student. One more time for transparency, I'm a student. So while you may put "quotes" around the title, I've actually had real work handed over to me, working long hours turning a wrench and getting dirty with my hands, overseeing/helping with repairs, and being in charge of rebuilds. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and I'm the first to ask for thoughts from the guys who work with the equipment daily. But no, I do not have a lot of experience from many years of working so if you'd like to go that route and attempt to invalidate what I say, I won't stop you. But if malice is your intent and you're going to pull out that measuring stick, lets see you throw down your resume before you make a claim. I'm only going to be a butthead to you if you want to go down that road.

But really, apparently pump curves are a challenge. I don't say that in a mean way, I dearly love the one lady who I had to explain it to; but I had to explain to this lady 4 times in 2 months how a pump curve worked. This included taking her to a pump in the field, validating local discharge pressure, and then confirming flow rate at those times with our data software, giving us a couple distinct points on the curve. I made sure we walked through basically a short version of the lab I did in classes to get her the idea of a pump curve and how those couple points lined up on the data sheet that we had on file for that specific pump. It took some patience, but she appreciated it a ton, and since she's in operations, it can only help with that area's understanding of how their equipment works. That's very important when they have a problem and they create and work order and one of us from the maintenance dept. has to troubleshoot the pump before we put our info into the work order and then have it sent to the shop for rebuild.

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Yes absolutely, although maybe not that specific example.. I usually give em five minutes and if they're giving me that deer in the headlights look then, aw I'll do it myself.

It goes both ways though. I've also worked with engineers, usually fresh out of school and thinking that they're all that, who don't know a wrench from their ass. Or who tell you to do something because it should work "in theory". You tell them it won't work but they tell you to do it anyway, then when it doesn't work they're sitting there scratching their heads because it should have worked, " in theory".
Oh for sure, goes both ways! That's when it's good to have a boss to beat those bad habits out of you at work so you're an the arrogant engineer in your personal time in your own garage. My boss was literally a hard ass and made my life difficult for 9 months just to break me in. Then he let me loose on a big compressor rebuild. Guess who's million dollar compressor train is still running and is still well within the acceptable vibration levels/temperatures/output levels.

I spent a good deal of time the last year in the smoke shack learning from the millwrights and machinists because that's where they go to take breaks or think. You can bounce a lot of questions off them and get a lot of good help for a new perspective. They're a bunch of rough old guys who tell dirty jokes and would get fired if HR ever heard them, but they know what they're doing and they do great work. Really good asset to have and although I'm not fond of the issues that sometimes go along with a Union shop, I have a ton of respect for those guys and their opinions. I made some great friends in the goofy old machinists.
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Old September 8th, 2015, 07:02 PM   #34
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Ryan, you sound like my old man

A few years before he retired he would always complain about all these new young guns they would bring in where he worked

Young kids would all get tasked with a job to fix, design build something and the young kids would have all these drawings and numbers ect... and bring them to my dad to fab up stuff.

My dad is a man with no education and 50yrs experience making just about anything you can think of would look at the drawings like Question the young new workers about measurements written down for cutting and truing things to specs what were no where near achievable with the tools/equipment the place had on top of simple design flaws

He would say, this isn't going to work, make it, doesn't work, young guns all confused then the kids would tell him some rough dimensions of what they needed and he would just make it like he had done it 100 times.

basically when you get experience working with tools/materials you learn what is possible and what actually works vs what is theoretically possible.

Similar things can be said for skilled wood workers. Ask a skilled wood worker to make you something out of a random type of wood and they will have 100 reasons why not to use that kind of wood and why to use this other type, they just know.
Werd. That's why you get to know your guys on the floor and get comfortable going to them BEFORE the design is done and DURING the review stages so they can have good input. No sense mucking something up because you were too proud to ask.
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Old September 9th, 2015, 11:18 AM   #35
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invalidation of claim based on character, nicely done.
It's not an invalidation of claim based on character; it was a question. Since you don't have an engineering degree nor have you made a living as an actual engineer the quotes seem appropriate. Not an insult or an invalidation of character.
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Old September 10th, 2015, 05:19 AM   #36
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It's not an invalidation of claim based on character; it was a question. Since you don't have an engineering degree nor have you made a living as an actual engineer the quotes seem appropriate. Not an insult or an invalidation of character.
Then maybe I received that differently than it was intended, as I took that as a bit of an elitist challenge. Since you were so quick to be critical, I'll return; how many years have you been a scientist or engineer and how did you get there? People's stories are interesting to me and I've enjoyed some of those in this thread.


Yes, I do know your point well about young guys straight out of college. Like I said, I've spent a good bit of time working with old machinists. Please don't go to the opposite extreme, like one of the local bicycle shop owners. We got to talking one day and he said, "you guys are gonna be engineers right? Engineers are all assholes," and then promptly went on bragging about how successful his pissy little shop was, and how he didn't need anyone telling him he was wrong, and how masterful of a wheel builder he is, and he told us about his most recent invention to save the world and yadda yadda yadda. He told us how he could do a better job building our bike in a weekend and it would be no big deal and we were just wasting our time with "all that fancy math". We held our tongues, made our final purchase, and walked out the door. Haven't talked to him in almost 2 years and he lost our business, as well as anyone on campus who asks us for a local shop. Please don't be so critical that you become that guy. No one likes that guy.
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Old September 10th, 2015, 11:24 AM   #37
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All these iron rings pumping up their tires and not one of them has addressed my technical issue! (I only have 3 posts; it's not hard to find )

As for you Mocha Man; shouldn't you be impressing your Proff's with a brilliantly researched report on "When the Blob meets El Niño!"?
Or at least a solution to get rid of some of these damn jellyfish and red tide so I can get back to enjoying a few raw West Coast oysters!
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Old September 10th, 2015, 11:54 AM   #38
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Or at least a solution to get rid of some of these damn jellyfish and red tide so I can get back to enjoying a few raw West Coast oysters!
Well, I'm researching seals, their scat, and fruit flies currently. Any chance those could help with the jellyfish problem? Haha Around where I live, we have jellyfish but they aren't too big of an issue, as long as you're careful when you're scuba diving.
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Old September 10th, 2015, 02:20 PM   #39
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The jelly & red tide blooms are in Puget Sound as well as most of the west coast. Interesting times and perhaps much more so if "The Blob" & El Niño mix together which is a possibility.
As I am new to this site; just to ensure no misinterpretation: my posts are always meant to seek answers, entertain or or inform. Never is it my intent to disparage anyone or any subject. I hate trolls and those that are bullying or condescending to others!
I am definitely not a biologist or an engineer!
It's also not my intent to highjack threads! So on that note; I'll make my exit!
Cheers!
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Old September 10th, 2015, 02:30 PM   #40
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It's also not my intent to highjack threads! So on that note; I'll make my exit!
Cheers!
No, no! Your posts seem appropriate for this thread!

I attempted to answer your first post in the other thread.
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