Engineering sux

But anyways, I have no regrets about changing from engineering to literature. accentmonkey is otm imo, pure thought is more fulfilling than meccano.

And I'm actually surprised to see that an engineer reads books of fiction and visits this site. I was under the impression that engineers only read, you know, technical and managerial things. But Jaq is probably a European engineer and thus somewhat more cultured than us lowly Americans. That's another thing too. I sit in on meetings where ESA reps teleconference with NASA reps. Being from the North, it really surprised me to hear Texan Board Chairs in these meetings using phrases like "might could have" (as in "We might could have fixed that foam issue better") or "used to could" (as in "We used to could send people to the moon"). I always wonder how the Brits and the other ESA reps, for whom English is a second language - yet whose English is better than a lot of the Texans' - regard their Texan counterparts.

Most of my co-workers read massive amounts of sci fi and fantasy and one reads scads of romance novels. I seem to be the only one interested in Updike, Vidal, Robinson, Lessing, those sorts, along with the sci fi.

Most of my co-workers read massive amounts of sci fi and fantasy and one reads scads of romance novels. I seem to be the only one interested in Updike, Vidal, Robinson, Lessing, those sorts, along with the sci fi.
Of course, often both camps seem to like
this

I'll check the book title; what fun if it's someone around here!

"I have steered clear of Mr. Pynchon, though his titles shout out at me from the shelves. As with Mr. Joyce, there's much trepidation on my part." [how does one get things to appear in italics on this site?]

--I think it should be a requirement that all engineers read Gravity's Rainbow at some point in their lives, just out of respect for the background they share with him. I would imagine they'd like him, too.--I just quickly skimmed an online biography, apparently different than the one I'd read before, that says Pynchon graduated with a BA in literature; apparently he changed majors from engineering physics to literature. I'd always thought he'd first gotten an engineering degree, went and fought in the Korean War, and got an MA in English upon his return to the States. So I guess engineers don't necessarily have all that in common with him. I guess I have more in common with him than I'd thought. Except, of course, that he's an incredibly better writer than I can ever really hope to be.--So I guess I'll rephrase what I said above: It should be a requirement for everybody to read Gravity's Rainbow at some point in their lives, just out of respect for incredibly good art.

As for you, Jaq, you should probably read Joyce's Ulysses as well as Gravity's Rainbow and decide which one you like better. Just for fun. It doesn't matter how much of either you understand, they're both pretty impossible to follow too closely. For me it's the prose itself that's just awe-inspiring. And, by the way, Gravity's Rainbow wins out over Ulysses in my opinion.

And by golly, it is! Playback, by one Mark Coleman. Woot! I was being read aloud fascinating bits of it last night while falling asleep.

I like the idea of going for both Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses. I was put off the idea of Mr. Joyce by reading Edna O'Brien's short bio before I actually read anything he wrote. But husband read The Dead and Portrait of the Artist aloud to me a few months back, and well....okay he's genius with words.

You can use the standard html tags in here: < i > and < /i > for italics.

i too thought jaq was a quebecois(???) male, or something.

oh and in response to the original post: engineers suck. i don't know anyone who likes engineers and i don't know why anyone would.

perhaps because some of us also swallow?

Sorry Chris, to so lower the tone, but since you're the mod you can sweep it away.

one of the negative points is unrealistic expectations from small companies who hire you but do not train you too well. This led to me losing my first engineering job about 3 months before Sept 11th happened and all tech hiring stopped. I was unemployed for 6 months before heading to the mortgage industry for 3 years. I escaped that in april, and am now trying to work my way back into an engin job, even tho i have little experience and skills that have been rusting for the last 4-5 years.

also, you graduate from school with an ass-load of student debt.

This is not limited to engineering. It's a small company thing. Bloke just went from working in a small company as Sys Admin and general all-round IT god to working in G00gle, and he was amazed that on his first day he wasn't asked to do any actual work, just listen to a lot of information about how the company works and what will be expected of him when they finally do let him do some work.

Why would I do such a thing!?

For a more humourous view try Dilbert
www.dilbert.com