Some of my best friends really are engineers. I see two dynamics that belie that picture of the situation. I ve found this to be particularly true in large companies, like the big automotive and aerospace firms. Incredible bureaucracies have been put into place for the sole purpose so it would seem of keeping engineers from spending money on anything, regardless of its potential benefit to the company or the eventual end user. The other dynamic negatively affecting the engineer s embrace of technology is more subtle.
Engineers are a pretty risk-averse crew.
That s good. I want the people who design bridges, elevators, automobiles, and nuclear power plants to be conservative, to always want to be on the safe side. This tendency has been abnormally strengthened by the fact that engineers are measured by how well they meet management expectations. The re-wards for success are extremely attractive, but the punishment for failure is all too real. So predictable mediocrity is almost always preferred to daring brilliance.