Thread: The Engineer's Muse

The Engineer's Muse

Ingenuity
creates functionality
through efficiency --
work accomplished by design
needs only be done the once.

Ingenuity
creates functionality
through efficiency

The sense here worries me, it seems you are claiming ingenuity and efficiency as both being responsible for functionality. I also feel accuracy should have a place, the difference between the engineer and the mechanic is that the engineer oils his lathe every time before he starts and maintains consistency and accuracy. On the other hand I love the idea of mixing the Japanese influence with modern mechanics, I might even write a sonnet, 'Ode to the twin turret lathe'.

lol, I should've made this a haibun.

Dr. John Leinhard in his Engines of Our Ingenuity broadcast episode number 12 talks about the relationship of the words "ingenuity" and "engineer" and their common origin in the Latin "ingeniare" which he defines as "to devise". My inclusion of "efficiency" is because of the concept that it's the lazy who invent--as a means of easing their workload. There is also a dash of the comment from The Zen of Programming that "the hard way is the easy way".

What I wanted to say, and apparently didn't, was that engineers have muses, but call them by such names as "ingenuity". And I agree that consistency and accuracy are also marks of engineers. My husband's family is one of engineers dating back into the 17th century. Engineering isn't just *what* an engineer does, it's *how* s/he does it.

Engineering isn't just *what* an engineer does, it's *how* s/he does it.

So true, that, as my friend used to say, is the difference between the engineer and the oily rag.