This adage can be applied to many professional circumstances, but particularly to the ethical domain of engineering.
Engineering is a profession in transition.
But those changes have transformed the public image of engineering, its scope of practice, the way it is taught, and often the very nature of the profession's activities. There is truth in the adage I cited a moment ago. Too commonly, that practice is limited to recurrent naggings of routine and convention, habits of seeing, habits of feeling, and habits of doing that understandably drain professionals of their spontaneity. As a result, we may become indiscriminate, immune to the unique circumstances and conditions of the situation at hand. Preoccupation with daily routine and work patterns causes professionals to lose touch with their profession, its ideas, and its ideals.