Opinion: For engineers, no good deed goes unpunished

3/23/2010 12:46 PM EDT

Bill, I agree with your assessment but also believe there's another factor: as a group we've sometimes over-promised and under-delivered. Aren't we supposed to be living in a Jetson-like world by now, piloting our flying cars to and from work? Where's the paperless office that was promised in the 80s? When is my vacation on Mars?

To be sure the engineering and scientific communities have made - and continue to make - great contributions to society. But we've contributed to the lack of respect as well.

Thanks for the excellent article!

3/23/2010 1:16 PM EDT

i think may be it's because the mass media keep portraying engineers/scientists as nerds, geeks, or evil geniuses.
look at how many tv shows glorify the lawyers, doctors, and solders

3/23/2010 1:34 PM EDT

I think it also hinges on the engineers and scientists creating the ability to have an "instant on" and "fully connected" society. Those Born after 1980 don't remember not having computers in the home. They haven't seen the Apple rise from the IIe to the iMac, iPhone, and iPad. Computers have always "just been there." They haven't toiled through BASIC language programming and DOS. It amazes me to see the technological progress we as engineers have seen over the past 30 years. TRS-80's anyone? :-)

As Mr. Schweber states, we have made the world 'magic.' We have made the technologies that make the world a better place today commonplace. We made the tools that allow the MBA's, Wall Street Traders, and the other current "sexy" job sectors what they are. The magic overshadows the work that went into the project. The magic overshadows the feeling of accomplishment when one creates a successful EEPROM load and/or electronic project in school. We have allowed the secluded, geeky, socially inept, live in the parent's basement stereotype to take hold.

We need to get the engineers and scientists back in the forefront and get the do-nothing Hollywood "stars" out of the limelight. Really. All they do is repeat others' words and direction anyway.

Excellent opinion piece!

3/23/2010 2:01 PM EDT

Bill, you're dead on. One nit: Bill Gates does garner respect, but you neglected to say why -- it's because he's rich, not because he's smart. I think the reason society lauds fame for its own sake instead of technology or science is that T&S is HARD. It takes real mental energy, real cognition. Read People Magazine and see if you ever once break a mental sweat. Also, the more technical things work well, the more they're taken for granted. Thus has it ever been. People who assign meaning to a psychic prediction success rate of 0.1% (well below random chance) would get very angry if their car or computer or big screen TV were to fail just once a year. We technologists aren't bringing this on ourselves, we're exposing a self-limiting trait in humanity. We're in the historical phase just before the fiddling starts and the matches get lit.

3/23/2010 2:06 PM EDT

You are dead on. Today's society flocks away from what is hard and takes the easy route.

3/23/2010 2:36 PM EDT

So true. Another example is at the local level. Our local newspaper never misses a sports score from our local kids teams, which is great. However, two (TWO!!!) local students placed highly at last year's Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF 2009), ahead of about 1,500 students from over 50 countries, and there was nary a mention! Forget about the results from the county science fair.

I completely agree with Mr. Friedman that we need to celebrate these students and their accomplishments. To paraphrase the Intel advertisement, our rock stars should be your rock stars.

Oops, gotta go. Somebody wrote something new about Michael Jackson! Maybe he's still dead.

3/23/2010 2:47 PM EDT

I've heard the gnashing of teeth over our societal status since the 90's. It's gotten old. It does no good to preach to ourselves. Let's stop. We're engineers - by our nature we don't keep repeating things that don't work. Instead, find something - anything - to improve the situation.

I do projects with my girlfriend's daughter. Pop-bottle rockets, snap-together electronics, stuff like that. Not everything works as planned. That's good, it shows her that results don't just appear without effort. Sometimes you have to re-think and try again when things go wrong. I doubt she'll be an engineer, but at least she won't grow up to believe tech goodies are magically delivered by Morlocks living underground.

I can't fight a war against society - I'm too old and too tired and there's too many of them. But I can fight this one, tiny battle. And it's going to deliver more results than crying "We don't get no respect!" That's just useless.

3/23/2010 3:46 PM EDT

Bill, your posts and columns just improve with age. Keep up the great work!

Now, as counterintuitive as it may sound, it may just be that the publicly unglorified engineer is better off. Seems to me--to expand on RPCY Consulting's take--that once money began to be associated with engineers--lost of money--the tide may have begun to turn against engineers. We always love an underdog in this country, but one the underdog takes the podium, it's time for pot shots.
In addition, to reinforce what a lot of the other commenters said, it's HARD. It's hard to become an engineer and it's hard, challenging work. Americans will work hard but young Americans weaned at the TV/Internet nipple are increasingly being told that fame and fortune can come to you without any prerequisite intelligence or athletic ability (see Kardashian, Kim).
And I think lastly, yes, engineers deserve respect, but too much respect (see doctors, all) isn't any better.
Maybe toiling in obscurity for good pay and the better satisfaction of intellectual stimulation and technical achievement is the zen here.

I heard a story once that may or may not be true: Stanford wanted to reward Fred Terman for all his great work and churning out great engineers by building a new engineering building for him. He demurred, arguing that students working out of a Quonset hut at real live engineering benches might not be as innovative or focused amid newly luxurious surroundings.

3/23/2010 4:12 PM EDT

The problem as I see it was that the developments were too complicated for the average person to comprehend. It was easier for the quick entertainment fix while the dads and moms were creating the next technological breakthroughs. Even as an engineer, it was difficult to keep up with computer technology, so you had to 'specialize' or get lost in the haze of development. The average person thought is was just to boring to put any effort into reading it. The problem we face now is there are too few to pick up the torch that us old timers want to pass it off to. The problem is we made it too easy, so the next generation is too lazy to dive into this very complex technological 'web' that we created.

3/23/2010 4:12 PM EDT

Thanks to all above for your comments. Yes, the "Jetsons" future that was envisioned didn't quite happen--hey, nuclear power was going to make power so cheap they wouldn't even bother to meter it, they said in the 1950s.
But instead, the future that hardly anyone saw came fast and furious: cell phones, connectivity, the web, PCs, iPods...you can make your own list.
It's like Yogi Berra supposedly said: "predictions are very hard to make, especally about the future" and "the future ain't what it used to be".
Bill Schweber

3/23/2010 6:06 PM EDT

It's our fault. We should have increased the price of the chip based on number of transistors instead of the total area. That's how doctors did it. It's not the end result, its the number of procedures and number of tests we've been charged for.

3/23/2010 9:11 PM EDT

I think you've got it wrong. Scientists and engineers were celebrated in the '40s and '50s because they developed the atomic bomb which ended the war, and built the rockets which saved us from the Soviets. In the public's eyes they were the source of real power that kept us safe against threats to our very survival.

While all these things are true today, without a major enemy to threaten us scientists and engineers are simply the people who make all these wizbang gadgets possible. After all, very few people worship the assembly line worker.

And I have to wonder if Friedman really understands the work done by the Intel science winners. He's really promoting hero worship. It works for sports figures and actors since everybody can understand their "heroic" deeds, even though most don't really understand the strategies, techniques, and training that make it possible.

3/24/2010 8:31 AM EDT

I've often said that I believe that Thomas Friedman would be baffled by the miracle of instant coffee. Most of his books are documentaries of his discovery of things the learned technical world has known about for at least 15 years.

Friedman is also and open borders, the-Chinese-and Indians-will-bury-US-so-we-must-import-endless-numbers-of-their -"best and brightest" advocate.
Additionally, has huge financial investments in China and India that he wants to appreciate in value. In other words, he is not a disinterested proponent of core US interests.

I graduated Class of 2000 from a public High School in the Midwest (indianapolis to be exact). Science, Tech, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) were always regarded as prestige fields by most students even during the 1992 - 1995 recession period.

STEM practitioners never had "celebrity" status but were highly respected and envied members of the community.
So-and-so BS Engineering was always more highly regarded than So-and-So Doctor of Jurisprudence or So-and-So MBA.

If anything has changed it's that most American teenagers no longer regard STEM as an economically viable career path given the long, grueling and mentally taxing education and the long grueling and mentally taxing work environment. The constant drumbeat of outsourcing and insourcing via H1B have been pretty debilitating.

Also the POTUS, Mr. Obama, gutting NASA and military technology, things like the B2 and Space Shuttle really inspired the young men and women of the world ...at least people like me who were born in the early 80's to get into STEM, you have a society sending messages that STEM doesn't matter.

3/24/2010 12:57 PM EDT

Actually my larger point was that Friedman isn't saying that about society.
According to his piece he does not view companies and countries (and by extension)
as relevant in advancing technology. He goes on to say that we are only competing
with the bounds of our imagination. Then rather contradictorly he tells us that we need
unlimited immigration to our country.

It's hard to convey my disgust with this article in written form.
But let me give my summary of Friedman's argument as I see it.

I mentioned that Friedman is a rich man who is heavily invested
in industries where Friedman's ROI directly depends on the volume
of cheap compliant labor these industries can indenture.
Friedman wants to drum up public support for an immigration
policy that will secure this labor force for his investees.

Of course rather than just come out and declare this he has
to conceal it behind a veneer of outrage at our society's lack of
respect and acclaim for science.

3/26/2010 4:48 PM EDT

Great comments all 'round here. Two more to add: In some ways, we bring this upon ourselves. Engineers are slow to self promote and almost take pride in being 'different' (aka: nerdiness is a badge of honor). Being sidelined socially is a natural consequence. When I heard Buzz Aldrin was going on Dancing With the Stars, I finally had to break down and watch the show (but only for his appearance). It was good to see an engineer (and true hero) have a bit of fun too.

On a sadder note, I went to our local school district budget meeting on Tuesday night. Cutbacks are looming, like anywhere else, and advanced placement programs are on the list of things to be dropped, in favor of an International Bacculaureate program (I won't get into that, that's a whole other issue).
My point is this: A young girl, a middleschooler of maybe 10 or 11 years of age, walked up, took the microphone and begged the panel of supervisors/principals/accountants/superintendents to not get rid of the advanced math program. She loved it, the teacher, the projects, her fellow math buffs, everything about it. Her enthusiasm infected everyone in the audience. When she was done, the panel smiled and clearly thought it was 'cute' and didn't respond to her pleas.

I didn't think it was cute. It pulled at my heartstrings. The passion was there, and the adults laughed it off. I just came away saddened.

3/26/2010 5:06 PM EDT

It is not the general public but managers and politicians that started taking scientists and engineers for granted. And the scientists and engineers let this happen in exchange for job security, a desk top and an occasional "spot award" (100 € after tax!).

3/26/2010 6:38 PM EDT

Hi Bill,

As an engineer, I'm not fully convinced that it is our persistent success at achieving so many remarkable breakthroughs that is the only cause of this.

And I too have experienced the frustration when technology is reviewed from the perspective of only features or cost and not for what went into creating it in the first place.

I think there has been a general shift in attitude as we experience the outcome of "the consumer is king" mindset. If the end consumer's satisfaction is our only goal, and we focus on that at the expense of everything else, then we get to a point where how the consumer is satisfied does not matter, only if the consumer is satisfied. So performance of technology is now a given. It has to perform, otherwise the consumer is not satisified. So we have gone from being remarkable creators of the future to just doing our expected job to satify the consumer. And we aren't the only ones to experience this shift.

What I don't have is a good answer to reversing the trend.

Ray Keefe
Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd
http://www.successful.com.au

3/27/2010 9:35 AM EDT

Bill- what I have faced as an engineering career consultant and leading Headhunter is that one of the major problems is the lack of marketing of the profession in general. Engineers are generally opposed to salesmanship and leave that job for the marketing and sales specialists. I am constantly counseling them on tracking their accomplishments and results, and developing the mindset of promoting their profession and achievements. In a world where very non-talented people become idols to the masses. It is time for the engineering community to become proactive and continue to announce to the world the true talents of our profession, not only individuals but technology in general. A very good example of this would be Steve Jobs and Apple. We need more of this hype if we are truly going to rise to the top of the food chain again!

That's my 2 cents and I am sticking to it. I hope at an individual basis people get the message and begin to then realize the benefits they deeply deserve.

3/27/2010 11:41 AM EDT

I have worked in semiconductor fabs, R&D and high volume manufacturing for 25 years. For a 1/2 dozen years I organized 30-50 engineers to support National Engineers Week an outreach program for 7th grade school children. Over the years have had the opportunity to speak with many engineers, students and teachers. Much of what you say is true. But so what is the point? Who cares that engineers are not appearing on magazine covers or that their newest product is being slammed. Concerned over no respect? Well here is something that should concern you, not only are children uninterested in STEM careers most are not even interested in reading. I asked ~500 seventh graders, "how many of you spend 10 minutes a day reading?" With the exception of an advanced placement class >95% did not read. When asked, "how many of you spend >1hour a day on Utube or facebook, every class broke out into applause. Teachers tell me that they have classes where 50% of the kids read at the 1st or 2nd grade level. These are 7th graders. I tutor at risk high school kids who read at a primary level and cannot add a column of numbers or perform simple division without a calculator. Not getting enough repect for being an engineer, get over it. The future of our culture is at stake.

3/28/2010 6:10 PM EDT

Don't overlook the tremendous demographc changs wrought by
40 years of unprecedented immigration to the US. In particular the
massive influx of immigrants from cultures which place little emphasis on
technical education. 50% of the children born in the US are from
this stock and immersed in what can be generously dubbed an
anti intellectual accomplishment mentality. The mainstream culture
that once elevated science has been undermined by an imported
culture that does not. That's the harsh reality. It's not irreversible
we just have to focus on the root causes.

3/30/2010 4:29 PM EDT

Bill it is an excellent article. I agree with most of the comments but we shouldn't forget that as engineers we have a responsibility of applying technogy to make our life better. Up to now this happened only for a minority part of this planet as still a lot of peolle don't car about all of this technology as they just struggle to try eat enough every day. I agree that to much recognition is given to easyness and doing an engineer work is dificult with poor reward today. On top of this it is a job that can be delocalized in a few weeks in china or india just based on cost and not at all on the intrinsic value of the people even if I agree that you have as well bright people in india and china. Personally I think we have to wake-up to take the opportunity of the major issue in front of us regarding environment to rehabilitate the engineer status. I love the song of Eurythmic " I save the world today", we can do it and it is time to mobilize for that as the task is extremely huge. If not I am worried that when the troubles will be there we could be seen as the guilty guys who devellop technology wothout conciousness and then our life could be even worse. The world is finite and we know it.

3/31/2010 5:24 AM EDT

Dear Bill,
Nice story, very true in places, but there's certainly some inconsistencies. First of all us engineers we are not valued enough by the public because we are nod valued enough by the powers that run the enterprises. Our bosses stepped in and took all the credit.
And yes, it's our bosses that decide which feature is going into that phone: we have the feature figured out already but they decided no!

3/31/2010 12:30 PM EDT

The real problem is that few people understand what we do. I was discussing the book "Zero" at a party last weekend (with an engineer) when some on the side of the conversation laughed at the concept of zero being interesting. I understood their laughter and laughed with them. But the fact remains that MTV would get better rating broadcasting static as compared to an engineering presentation. Think about those high rated cspan channels!

3/31/2010 4:39 PM EDT

The story does reflect the situation, but it seems that the cause is deeper. On the one side, engineers are quite separated from the physical production of wealth. We do the designs here, and the products are produced overseas, where labor is cheap. That leads to a "disconnection" between the engineers and the product, as far as public, and management, perception. Of course, this perception is enhanced by the teaching in MBA mills, that "engineers are an interchangable commodity". That translates easily to "not valuable, and easy to replace as needed". On the other side is a general lack of interest in understanding "why" about almost everything. I am not sure where this attitude came from, who promotes it, or the motivation, but the reality is that we have a lot of people in the USA who are woefully ignorant about a whole lot of things, and have no desire to learn. Unfortunately, it looks like this is going to prevail, and we will cease to be a major world power. I view this as a HUGE TRAGEDY!

4/1/2010 3:17 AM EDT

The lesson is that when you do too good a job, and make it look so easy, the audience's sense of appreciation soon fades away . . . .

This statement rings hollow to me, as nothing looks more effortless than being a Hollywood celebrity.

Nor do I think that the lay person in the 1940's had any greater insight into the intellectual rigor that it took to create the A-Bomb than our current populace understands the innovations behind nanotechnology or 100-million-gate microprocessors.

My hypotheses include . . . . .

As one famous movie line put it "Follow the money". The ratio of salaries between a famous actor or athlete vs. the middle-class in decades past was, while high, not the astronomical gap that it is today. Ironically, this income gap (and thus idolization gap) may have been caused by the ubiquity of celebrity made possible by the ubiquity of mass electronic media, which was created by . . . wait for it . . . us.

The war on Reason that has been going on in the humanities departments of American Universities for over a century does not contribute to respect for intellectual professions.

The Environmental movement (which most Americans naively believe to be a kind of global sanitation department) has painted as suspect any process by which man reshapes the material of nature to serve his purposes.

For those old enough to remember, ask yourself if -- in the pre-1960's/70's culture of America -- it would have been conceivable for us to experience an incident like that at Three Mile Island in 1979, and to thereafter turn away from nuclear power instead of working to improve it.

4/1/2010 11:43 AM EDT

Bravo, Bill. I don't think it is possible to bring too much attention to this issue and, judging upon the amount of feedback you are getting, it's obviously something close to home. All this great commentary is, perhaps, too close to home. The people that need to hear about this-- the young people deciding upon careers-- are tweeting, Facebooking, emailing, texting, and YouTubing their way through the day. They're in classrooms, dorm rooms, libraries or local coffee shops hanging out, studying or working on group projects. Sadly for them, they probably aren't connected to your terrific columns and newsletters or the thoughtful and provocative responses you are getting. I agree that engineers "toil in obscurity" developing "tech goodies" that most certainly are not magically delivered by Morlocks. But I do not agree that the next generation is "too lazy to dive into complex technology" I just think we need another way to deliver the value to them and what better way than through programs that support education and through the social media outlets that are literally virtual extensions of their bodies? Shoot, engineers made the tech goodies happen so let's use the outlets and devices to remind everyone whose expertise is inside these goodies.

I wrote a column several years ago suggesting that companies stop complaining that there aren't enough engineers and do something about it. Go to Washington all you want, but figure out a strategy that heightens the awareness of the value of engineering and put all you've got into it. Like you, I may have been preaching to the choir because my audience was engineers. But now we have outlets beyond the engineering world to deliver the message.

Even before I joined Texas Instruments a few months back, I stumbled across a Thank an Engineer video on YouTube produced by TI. It was corny but clever and it was obvious that TI was attempting to remind the non-engineering masses that there were some brilliant minds behind those clever devices and technologies (i.e. what would life be like without wireless?) And they used YouTube to deliver the message. Not just TI.com, not just an engineering publication, but a video-sharing platform developed by a designer and two computer-science "geeks". This is just one example of the proactive awareness campaigns we need coming out of engineering and high-tech companies to supplement whatever else we pour into the glass many of your respondents "rightly perhap" see as half-full.

By the way, the fans of TI's Thank an Engineer Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ThankAnEngineer) also addressed the "get no respect" message in your article and I was pleased to see someone recommend a couple of grass roots websites that encourage young people to enter the field of engineering.

And to give depth to the awareness and personal connections we create through these channels, we in the industry need to put more muscle behind STEM programs in schools and university engineering programs. FIRST Robotics Competition, the Engibous Prize competition, and sponsorship of analog labs in universities are just a few examples of how to give kids a taste of what it's like to develop something that can help change our world for the better.

Finally, I had the exceptional fortune and opportunity to be able to "thank an engineer" who was also my Dad. If he were alive today, I know he would be discouraged by the lack of interest in engineering but he would most certainly be the first one to discuss, research, and implement any way possible to turn the tide. He was a resourceful man and would likely see education programs and social media as a resource engineers could use to their advantage to promote this exceptional profession. Let's go where the future engineers are. Let's speak the language. Let's go viral.

Edited by: ESD editorial staff: SRambo on Apr 1, 2010 12:14 PM

4/1/2010 12:23 PM EDT

Pardon the weird formatting. Decoder ring available upon request. cheers, Aimee.

4/8/2010 5:06 AM EDT

Well, and what may be the solution, then?

Or maybe the point is that successes now are achieved not by lone engineers but by engineering teams or, even more, market competition teams together?

Today it is difficult to assign a clear improvement to a single person or even a single team, but these made this and those added that, and all together made the success.

In this scenario, where the success is not in the single outstanding person but in a continuous ant-like work, it can be understood that the person directs the awe to the unique fashion, song or cinema star. This is something the engineers or scientits cannot bring any more: self and outstanding success.

4/8/2010 11:05 AM EDT

Attaboys are few.
You're only as good as
your last miracle, and
that only lasts 3 mo.
Booboos last forever.
Longevity is like that of an athlete.
Next time, I'll pick a different career, and
keep electronics as a hobby only.

4/14/2010 5:48 AM EDT

All great civilization eventually comes to end. Western civilization is still in advantage with advance technology but even now is clear that this will not last long.
New generation – new seeds are not being plant for continuing progress today. Atomic bombs and stock market are not enough to ensure grows.
Short term interest is main strategy today. Take money and run. And there is no choice as all setup is wrong. For real progress it is necessary extreme changes to be made and there are no will for that, there is no recognition that extreme changes are needed urgently.

Just take one example from our engineers and scientist point of view…
Today most exciting time for the science is genetic research. It is so obvious that this will be next if not biggest challenge in human history ever.
If strategy is different we will be in position today, that genetic research is progressed by fast pace as “Moore laws” in electronic.
There is no wide exciting about that. There is no vision what that really means. What can be done! How life can be transformed.
Instead, there is even a fear to work in that field. There is few ready to come forward to inspire new generations about most exciting times ever and opportunities possible today.
Human rights movement working against human rights by preventing advantage in genetic research and taking us back 10 or more years …and still counting…
While human right make “big clever discussion” about poor human cells suffering, for million real fully develop human souls will be too late.
At the same time virus mutation is continue to progress as biggest threat to human races and I hope that we will be technologically ready to answer when time is come.

I am not angry on Human rights movement, politicians, peoples… forgive them they don’t know what they are doing…
But there are no excuses for us spineless scientist and engineers not taking a stand for our self and for the others as we are the ones who are chosen to stand for progress. Scientist and engineers had much more power then they think.
Can we connect spine with the brain and make impact to society? How can we expect respect today? Scientist and engineers in the past are respected as they being courage’s peoples risking their own lives for the science not like today generations afraid even to raise the voice, let alone to fight and risk life for good causes…

I am refusing to be spineless any more … can you have courage and join the club?
What you can do? Let make a plan and go for it… it is worth to take steps forward…and we are privileged to be in position to do!

4/14/2010 11:43 AM EDT

All of this is true, and more. Why are US engineering students so hard to come by? It is because the pay of a student who had to work hard and gather debts to get a 5-year degree in 5 or 6 years (because of the game the universities now play with classes availability), is today quite comparable to or less than a 4-year "bull major" (meaning non-engineering/non-hard-sciences). Engineers ARE becoming commodity because we are IMPORTING them. What has been missed is we EXPORT them after 7 years (H-1 visa, different issue) and lose the expertise, training, and technologies back to wherever they came from. As such, we have traded short-term gain for long term poverty. Oh well, I'll be retiring in a few years. Maybe I should consider retiring overseas...

4/19/2010 8:54 PM EDT

We often hear the words about needing/wanting more engineers from the governmental types, but then they refuse to back it up with action. Pres. Obama's dumping of the NASA engineers while telling them they can build another booster four years from now is one example. The mayor in San Diego is another; he just outsourced the city's IT department to a company that will use India-based support, while proclaiming that the city department was "overpaid." Obviously, they've both bought into the idea (like IBM in New York) that engineers should only earn enough to live comfortably in India, and any wage higher than that is "overpaid."

They all forget that engineers and possible future engineers are among the few who can "do the math." It doesn't take much mathematical talent to see that there are many other professions that will earn far more money and have far more respect than an engineer. That's what's driving people away from engineering, not the fame aspect. People still want to live in this country, and if they aren't going to get paid enough as engineers to do it, then they'll find something else to do.

Instead of an Engineering Week in February, we should all (including the offshore folks) take the same two weeks off one summer and let everyone realize how much a part of today's world we are. No one to keep production flowing, no meetings with customers where the marketing person gets six figures because you could answer the question that made the sale (and then be told you spent too much for lunch on your expense report), no development schedule worries, etc. It would wake a lot of people up to the hidden world of engineering.

5/5/2010 10:29 AM EDT

The loss of respect for engineering in particular, and all science in general, is at least partly due to moving production so far away from design. A current example is indeed the newest handsets: designed in the USA (and other places by collaboration), they are produced in other parts of the world, and then "magicaly" appear on store shelves. Who created them? Nobody that we knnow, they came from "far away". That is part of the problem.
Another cause has been the general attitude in management that talent and skill are interchangeable commodities, and that as a result, engineers and other technically skilled individuals can be treated like any other commodity item, purchased when needed and discarded when not needed at that moment.
Perhaps engineers are to blame for allowing this attitude to spread, since for many of us the desire to create exceeds the desire to get rich. Thus, our priorities have not been always directed at demanding the most that we can get. Unfortunately, other areas of expertise have been far more dedicated to extracting the most they can get, and probably the situation will not recover unless it is "reset to zero", which will probably be much worse than it sounds.

5/5/2010 10:59 AM EDT

Celebrities and sports figures benefit their investors if they receive more press. More press = profits. On the other hand, press and fame for engineers and scientists means they can demand more pay, will be able to dictate company policy, or will be snatched up by other businesses. More press = less profits. Now in days the only time the engineer or scientist receives any press is when they mess up or when they are disgruntled employees who are not team players.

5/13/2010 1:34 PM EDT

Yep, engineers are getting the Rodney Dangerfield treatment, for sure! It is a little scary to see technology and design authority leaving the US at an alarming rate, and all the politicians are clammering for are more H1B visas to let more non-residents into the country. They do not see the trend: 1) come to America, 2) Learn the technology, 3) return to your home country and startup a new business, 4) steal away the business! Another alarming trend--go to any US engineering school, and count the % foreign students walking around! What is wrong with teaching young US students to be engineers??? There seems to be a myth that American engineers are more creative, and that that will somehow keep the US innovating. Unfortunately, as another poster had stated, if the manufacturing is done overseas, there is less opportunity for that US engineer to learn how to build ANYTHING.

8/4/2010 4:57 AM EDT

I'm reminded of some of the science fiction stories of Isaac Asimov, Clarke's contemporary, where he predicted that the computer operators of the future would be the high priests of society; clearly we've failed to generate sufficient awe for that to happen!

8/17/2011 3:56 AM EDT

Dear Bill,

In the 'The lesson is' part you forgot to couple 'Management' to it. I see those guys as audience, spoiled with all the goodies that we as engineers have produced and will produce.

8/17/2011 9:46 AM EDT

Dear Bill,
I have to disagree with your opinion. The main reason is progress. The early engineers were pioneers in their areas, they were discovering new territories. Now most areas of regular engineering are clearly chartered and understood, except software which is still quite bad when it comes to big projects. It looks like that you expect that every new people which reach South Pole to receive same honors as Amundsen and Scott.