From: ejh@khonshu.colorado.edu (Edward J. Hartnett)
Subject: Re: Any Humanities Grads out there?
Organization: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 00:16:17 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.200656.28597@ra.msstate.edu> wkl1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Wing-Keong Loke                                               the consummate chronic prevaricator) writes:
>In article <1992Apr16.165347.15729@colorado.edu> ejh@khonshu.colorado.edu (Edward J. Hartnett) writes:
>>
>>I never said that teaching the humanities was not good. (Why do I 
>>have to keep repeating this point?) I'm not attacking your profession;
>>it's a valuable and important one. I was just responding to the often-heard
>>(at least by me) charge that engineers are in it for the money.
>
>	Right.  Like the often-heard charge that the humanities
>discipline don't contribute as much as the sciences.  What do you
>expect?  I'd think that I'd be at least a tad crazy if I don't
>have my prejudices.  There are many engineers who are in it for
>the money as there are many humanities majors who are in it for
>the money.
>	I think it would be better if we started talking about why
>many people say engineers are in it for the money instead of
>trying to refute the charge, because I really don't think many
>engineers or humanities are in their profession because they
>have this great, big idea that they're contributing to society
>in a very meaningful way that'd lead to thousand of lives saved
>from illiteracy or even hunger.  The factory workers who assemble
>the tractors that help harvest grain fields which help quell
>hunger isn't necessarily hung up about how their daily efforts
>are helping to feed people.  I think it'd be unrealistic.

Well, OK, If that's what you think, but that's not the way 
it is for me. I can't speak for every engineer, I know.
I turned down a higher-paying job to take this one working
at an environmental institute, because it's what I want to
do. I want to make a contribution. I don't want to spend my 
life making sugar stick to doughnuts better (as one famous
chemical engineer/science fiction writter spent his life
doing). I'm not really bragging. Actually, most engineers
that I know feel the same way. For example I have a friend
who works for the Philly Water Dept., and he's really proud
to be devoting his talents and efforts to writting a program
that monitors water pollution, and his work has had a direct
effect on cutting water pollution in the Philadelphia
area. He gets paid a bundle of money. I'm not saying he
would do it for free (he wouldn't), but his paycheck is
not what makes him take such pride in his work.

You might not agree that most engineers feel this way about
their work, and you could be right, but it seems that every
one that I know either feels this way about it, or wishes 
that they could (if they can't find a job that makes them 
feel like their making a contribution). Even the guy I
knew who worked on cruise missile electronics felt he
was doing a good thing for mankind. (I disagreed with
him, but who's to say?). Lot's of engineers (myself
included) won't work for the military for the reason 
that we believe that that's a negative contribution. 
Lot's feel the opposite. The point is, there is another
criterion than money involved.

Why do so many people say that engineers are in it
for the money? Sure, I get paid plenty, but money
isn't everything. What the hell, when I'm on my death-bed
I want to think I acomplished something in life, besides
a big bank account. If you want to call that a "great 
big way that they are contributing to society," then
I guess I'm flattered. 

One more note on this topic. In my freshman year I
knew plenty of people who wanted an engineering degree
just for the money, but most of them failed out. As
a senior said to me my first week: "You've got to
really love it, to put up with all the work."