# Anyone else notice the arrogance among engineers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 17, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980 "2006-02-17T18:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/101 "2006-02-18T01:41:11Z")
> [@Dag Otto](#): > > I see I finally made it too. However, **pizzabrat** is such an impotent poster that he failed to rupture my Pit hymen (it’s true, I checked). I’ll still consider myself to be a Pit virgin. IMHO, this thread proves my point with every post. ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/102 "2006-02-18T01:50:42Z")
You had a point? You were serious about this thread? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/103 "2006-02-18T02:10:46Z")
I think it’s hilarious that the Google Ads are for DVDs of the “40 year-old virgin”. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/104 "2006-02-18T02:22:45Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > IMHO, this thread proves my point with every post. Perhaps everyone is fucking with you and you’re not bright enough to get it. Oops. Haj - MSME ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/105 "2006-02-18T02:30:03Z")
> [@Una Persson](#): > > I think it’s hilarious that the Google Ads are for DVDs of the “40 year-old virgin”. LOL. Nice. I hadn’t noticed, but that is indeed funny. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/106 "2006-02-18T02:41:02Z")
> [@Jeeves](#): > > As a mere engineering student, I am not sure where I rank, so I better keep my mouth shut. I do know that I outrank mathematics majors though. 🙂 Fuck you. rayh BSc (maths) ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/107 "2006-02-18T02:48:28Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Perhaps everyone is fucking with you and you’re not bright enough to get it. > E To the point of going back to 1987 and publishing a book that ridicules non-engineers? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/108 "2006-02-18T02:59:29Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > To the point of going back to 1987 and publishing a book that ridicules non-engineers? I don’t get the reference. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/109 "2006-02-18T03:01:37Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I don’t get the reference. I think it’s along the lines of “Gorbachev sings: Turnips! Tractors! Buttocks!” ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/110 "2006-02-18T03:05:20Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I don’t get the reference. earlier… > [@sinjin](#): > > We’re not arrogant, we’re just healthily self-aware that we’re smarter than all you artsy-craftsies. > > [Toolies](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898655021/sr=8-3/qid=1140216248/ref=sr_1_3/002-5539647-9027253?%5Fencoding=UTF8) > > Sinjin (Engineer, Phd, pilot, Warrior owner) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/111 "2006-02-18T03:09:22Z")
I studied Land and Engineering Surveying but quit due to the arrogant engineers, I had no problems with the land. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/112 "2006-02-18T03:18:46Z")
Spent my first few years of school in engineering. Frosh week was pretty ridiculus, they were teaching us all these stupid songs about how much better we were than everyone else. I think it was mostly a case of young nerds finally feeling like they belonged somewhere. After a few years of growing up most of the folks settled down. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/113 "2006-02-18T03:30:23Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There’s a comedian in the Valley who used to be an IC designer. He uses PowerPoint in his routine. He’s damn funny. [This guy](http://www.technicallyfunny.com/index.htm), and he is pretty funny. At least to me, a NUCLEAR ENGINEER! ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/114 "2006-02-18T03:52:38Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > Arts student? Can you say “Would you like fries with that?” Hey, as a waitressing English major, I must admit that I say that _occasionally_. However, it’s usually because the fries are included with the meal. Do you need a doggie bag to go? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/115 "2006-02-18T05:20:06Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > Yeah, law schools just detest philosophy majors. Law school is a job? I’m pretty sure that it’s another institution to which you must pay thousands more dollars in order to gain the education and qualifications necessary to practice law. That’s not employability, is it? For what it’s worth, my father is an engineer, and I’ve picked up a number of his particular quirks - an inability to beat around the bush, a practical approach to dealing with the world around me, low tolerance for those who can’t understand why _this_ thing has to work in _this_ way, but won’t believe me when I explain it to them. These aren’t necessarily all positive traits at all times, but they seem to be something that engineers are more likely to share than others. Well, I tried doing some engineering-type projects in high school, and it wasn’t for me, so I went to college thinking that I was going to be some kind of humanities major, and did that for a year before realizing, hrm, that _really_ wasn’t right. So now I’m going to be a scientist. I may not be going to be an engineer, but sometimes you just can’t fight nature! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/116 "2006-02-18T05:24:28Z")
Engineers are gorgeous, sexy, charming and very smart. At least the one I married certainly is. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/117 "2006-02-18T05:34:33Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > IMHO, this thread proves my point with every post. See, the thing is, if one person tells you you’re wrong, they just might not like you. If two people tell you you’re wrong they may both be out to get you. If more or less everyone tells you you’re wrong, you just can’t call that an anomaly, disregard the data points as outliers, recalculate the limits and pretend the process is statistically in control. But I’m stating the obvious… ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/118 "2006-02-18T05:49:09Z")
I’m not sure why this thread continues, honestly. For every arrogant engineer who takes time to defend the honor of his vocation, there exist at least one or two more that barely scraped by in school and wouldn’t know intellectual arrogance if it bit them in their asses. I know, 'cause I meet them in my CS and mathematics classes. I’ve met an engineer who couldn’t understand how any non-engineer could accomplish anything of worth (she’s boring as hell, too, talks of nothing but horses and engines, though not, curiously, of one obsolescing the other); I’ve met an engineer who plays beautiful music and unpretentiously supports life’s finer things. Same’s every other kind of kind of person, is the engineer. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/119 "2006-02-18T07:23:57Z")
What do engineers do with their old suits? Wear them!!! I worked with engineers, architects, accountants, marketers, librarians, and operations managers (not at the same time) (I had 38 jobs) (it took 20+ years). My Dad and FIL are engineers. I found they tend to lack the superficial people skills, weren’t chatty or terribly personable. But the ones I knew were generous as hell and really conscientious. And re: artists, the good ones I’ve known were more like carpenters than drama queens. Tended to live quiet, normal lives with mortgages. The good ones put their drama into their work, not their lives. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/120 "2006-02-18T07:29:46Z")
I have no special acquired skills, but I do have an overdeveloped ego, which makes me acutely sensitive to other’s arrogance.\* It seems to me that there are at least a couple of varieties: there’s the sense of entitlement to goods and services and attention and whatever one wants that flows from an awareness of the copious amounts of resources one has or controls, and there’s the demand for respect, recognition and recompense for one’s talent and dedication and competence and objective worth. Both can be expressed in ways ranging from the charming to the profane. But the original _impulse_ to arrogance can be rated as to inherent worth. As it was when the world was young, those who can grow things and make things and mend things are often talked badly about by those whose skill is to talk about things or whose utility is the ability to buy things. It’s only natural that people try to maximize their economic advantage, and this is one way people do it. This tends to be less of a problem when there’s a shortage of useful things. In any event, I tend to defer more to the people whose advantage lies in building and growing and mending, and less to those who buy and sell and critique. Engineers may have an acute sense of their importance, and if it’s really out of proportion, it’s annoying. But not nearly as much as wading across a shallow spot in the river twice a day would be. \*Other’s arrogance may actually be poster’s own feelings of inadequacy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980.md?page=7)