Engineer Method, Billy Koen

Question 0

What is the engineer method?

Answer 0

Strategy for causing best change in a poorly understood situation within available resources

Question 1

Humanity’s most equitably dividing endowment

Answer 1

The use of the engineer method, rather than the use of reason

Question 2

Reason and how it’s different from engineer method

Answer 2

Ability to distinguish between true and false
Descartes’s “goods ends”
Different because it’s constantly changing, whereas the engineer method is consistent and constant

Question 3

How should an engineer be defined?

Answer 3

By the WAY he produces a product (his method), NOT by the product he produces (mistake of the layperson)

Question 4

View of engineers for historian perspective

Answer 4

Thinks ancient people who built things were first engineers; HOWEVER, every man is an engineer

Question 5

Original definition of an engineer

Answer 5

Person who seeks in the mind and sets mental powers I action in order to discover some way to succeed in a difficult task

Question 6

How does the anthropologist view the engineer?

Answer 6

Like a midwife
Present since birth
Engineering comes for a desirable change in an unknown, resources limited world

Question 7

Characteristics of an engineer problem

Answer 7

1. Change
2. Resources
3. Best
4. Uncertainty

Question 8

4 problems with change

Answer 8

1. Point A is unknown: the engineer doesn’t know where he is, where he is going, how to get there, or if it will matter
2. Point B is unknown
3. Must choose the most appropriate method of change
4. An engineer goals change throughout the design

Question 9

What defines and constrains the solution to an engineer problem

Answer 9

Resources

Question 10

Why working with resources is difficult

Answer 10

1. Must determine what is a resource
2. Confusion between nominal and actual resources (ex. Government projects)
3. Neglecting efficiency of resources (good allocation of resources increases resources)

Question 11

What is a resource

Answer 11

Anything that makes an important difference to a project

Question 12

Optimization space

Answer 12

All criteria in an engineer problem put together

Aka axis system

Question 13

Must choose best based on

Answer 13

Common measure of goodness

Question 14

How is relative importance represented when choosing the “best” solution?

Answer 14

By weighting coefficients on a value system

Question 15

What do engineers seek when choosing bests solution?

Answer 15

Society’s perception of reality

Including myths and prejudices

Question 16

Achieving the best solution

Answer 16

Result of manipulating a model of society’s perceived reality with considerations only engineers know

Question 17

Who do engineers design for?

Answer 17

The INDIVIDUAL

NOT the average

Question 18

Uncertainty

Answer 18

The struggle for choosing the best solution