# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/161 "2006-02-19T16:09:40Z")
> [@](#): > > **Una Persson** said: > Hope you feel better soon! Well it’s so nice of you to inquire from on high. ---
**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 19, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/162 "2006-02-19T16:15:10Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > He’s a civil engineer? He doesn’t seem very civil at all. Most of us never killed anyone, never tried to spread terror, so I don’t get the reference. **The Flying Dutchman** ’s point was amazingly fucking stupid and there is no point in trying to reply with logic. I guess we could counter by pointing out that Hitler was an artist but that would be too obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/163 "2006-02-19T17:52:41Z")
Aw, man, now you’ve gone and Godwinized the thread. Party-pooper. ---
**Author:** ![Squee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Squee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/164 "2006-02-19T17:55:06Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Aw, man, now you’ve gone and Godwinized the thread. Party-pooper. Yeah, I wish he took the time to Simonize it instead. It could used a shiny new coat. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/165 "2006-02-19T18:03:31Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Aw, man, now you’ve gone and Godwinized the thread. Party-pooper. Godwin should be stuffed in a trash can as a cheap way of stifling expression. Sometimes comparisons like this are justified. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/166 "2006-02-19T19:32:51Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Godwin should be stuffed in a trash can as a cheap way of stifling expression. Sometimes comparisons like this are justified. Godwin is worse than Hitler! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/167 "2006-02-19T19:35:49Z")
Damn that Godwin! The Fascist bastard! ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/168 "2006-02-19T19:59:03Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Damn that Godwin! The Fascist bastard! Was he by any chance an engineer? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/169 "2006-02-19T20:02:44Z")
Perhaps. Perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/170 "2006-02-19T20:19:33Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Was he by any chance an engineer? Oh, come on! Sure, he may have been a psycopathic mass murdering egomaniac, but there’s no need to get insulting! ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/171 "2006-02-19T22:08:27Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Oh, come on! Sure, he may have been a psycopathic mass murdering egomaniac, but there’s no need to get insulting! But, but, but, … even those of us who have been out of the game for 24 years can still be arrogant and insulting. It’s the one part of our training and we never forget although we might very well forget that E = IR. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/172 "2006-02-20T17:06:13Z")
The Engineers are still bickering? Just because they aren’t real scientists they keep putting on such airs and graces… ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/173 "2006-02-20T17:30:57Z")
Does someone have a score card? I’ve lost track of who is mocking whom and for what. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/174 "2006-02-20T18:31:05Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > I was going to post in this thread but then I noticed that there are many non-engineers contributing. I wouldn’t soil my hands by appearing in public with the likes of them.[sup]1[/sup] :rolleyes: > > . It was funny until you rolled your eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/175 "2006-02-20T19:22:51Z")
Ah yes, snowing our instructors with lots o’ that fancy-talk, that’s what us English majors do. Because English professors, especially the upper-division ones, were never actually students who tried to BS their professors. Also, they are all incredibly inexperienced in reading or writing essays and articles and therefore can’t tell pretty words splattered on a page from thoughtful discourse. I was once forced out of my job by an incredibly condescending engineer. I knew a great deal about computers and he was our Thinkpad tech. Whenever I asked him a question – from “I’m getting this error and I’ve tried this, this, and that, and I think they need a new hard drive, am I right?” to “We sent this computer part out for repair and the database says it’s back, but it’s not in the safe; do you know where it is?” he would huff and sigh and ask me very elementary questions. I understand this in the first week or two I’m on the job, but after realizing that yes, I do know what I’m talking about, he might have treated me like a human being. But he was an engineer, and I wasn’t. There was no way on God’s green earth that an English major could possibly diagnose a hardware issue, and if the part that had just come in was sitting on his desk, open and out of the box and covered in stacks of paper, it was my fault for not knowing where it was. I told my boss I couldn’t deal with him anymore. She essentially said “Fine, but he’s worth more to us than you, so don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Then again, my dad’s an engineer. I like my dad. I have a lot of friends who went into engineering. They’re spiffy people. But I’ve dealt with many engineers who go into any situation with a non-engineer with a sense that they know ever so much more. These are frequently also the people who commonly can’t spell or parse a written sentence correctly, yet they look down on me for having a BA in English. They make a great deal of money with their genius in math and physics, and I translate their words like a priest for the Oracle of Delphi (frankly, sometimes it seems like the engineers are more stoned than the Oracle…) ---
**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 20, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/176 "2006-02-20T20:07:14Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > Does someone have a score card? I’ve lost track of who is mocking whom and for what. \*\*WOOHOO! NERD FIGHT!\*\* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/177 "2006-02-20T20:15:34Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > WOOHOO! > > NERD FIGHT! > > 😃 Well, yea, that part I had figured out. But which are the “Shark Nerds” and which are the “Jet Nerds”? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/178 "2006-02-20T20:32:25Z")
> [@Little Plastic Ninja](#): > > I was once forced out of my job by an incredibly condescending engineer. I knew a great deal about computers and he was our Thinkpad tech. Your Thinkpad tech was an _engineer_? Talk about overkill! Some of our best techs didn’t even have college degrees and couldn’t have designed an original circuit if their lives depended on it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/179 "2006-02-20T21:45:42Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Your Thinkpad tech was an _engineer_? Talk about overkill! Some of our best techs didn’t even have college degrees and couldn’t have designed an original circuit if their lives depended on it. Strange but true. Maybe the MBA program figured it needed the BEST THINKPAD TECH EVER. Or maybe IBM shunted him off because they hated him as much as I did. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980/180 "2006-02-20T22:39:08Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > But, but, but, … even those of us who have been out of the game for 24 years can still be arrogant and insulting. It’s the one part of our training and we never forget although we might very well forget that E = IR. Ahem, thats V=IR. You damn EEs hijacked our physics formulas and messed them up with your secret society alphabet. But then, the young and immature branch sciences are prone to that… _Physics degree, going for my second in EE, and insist on using Physics notation to irk my professors_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-notice-the-arrogance-among-engineers/344980.md?page=10)