Engineering isn't about following instructions!
Author writes: The prof believes that this stereotype of solo engineering comes from "television programs and other media".
Um excuse me. Media stereotype? Where? I can't remember the last time I saw an engineer on my telly. There are never engineers on the telly. Only Doctors. (Who btw are usually portrayed as only slightly less worthy of reverence than God.)
Did they ever stop to think that yeah, maybe that just IS what engineers do? That maybe that's just how they are, genetically? I'm not saying it is, but I sure as heck suspect it.
Author writes:...typical engineering students would instead break the project up into separate jobs so as to avoid working collaboratively.
Well duh, maybe that's because they're smart enough to understand that the way to make people accountable for what they've done is to make it clear who's done what.
Author writes: Another troubling tendency, according to Leonardi, was that student engineers didn't much care to follow instructions as to how to solve a problem.
Why are these professors giving engineers detailed instructions on how to solve a problem, anyway? I seem to remember learning something in school about how the essence of engineering was the determination of how to solve a problem. If a person wants to follow instructions I suppose they oughta try cooking.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
