Throughout my life I have been very inquizative. I find engineering makes the back of my head tingle, especially when I solve a good problem. I am a computer programmer and electronics tech by career and have been involved in mechanical engineering most of my life as well. My father was an Electronics Engineer and teamed with many bright men and women at Beckman Instruments to create the first blood-gas analysis machines. That was an undertaking.
I find that complex problems can be solved by thinking through the problem and trying to solve it on paper. So much has been lost in our society through the advent of technology. We used to solve math with paper, pencil, and later with slide rules. Then came the calculators and computers. Computers brought spreadsheets that let you make you're math equations, enter data, and viola, it is solved. Now for the bright mathematicians, this spreadsheet offers a lot of possibilities and might even provide a medium for important discoveries.
For the folks who have been caught up in dumming down the society, I feel sorry that you are missing out on the brain exercises that have defined humans for eons. We think, therefore we are. Rodan's Thinker. It is what we are. Not just someone sitting on a toilet, as some might think. If we allow a machine to think for us and place the answers in our heads by having us read the answer on the screen, then we are no better than the machine.
If we succomb to group think, then we are no better than the society as a whole. By thinking for yourself and recognizing problems and analyzing the data and solving that problem, you have excercised your brain in a way that many can't do today. There are those who have been educated that can't grasp concepts and understand the paths used to solve problems. They read books, took tests, and have a paper saying that are someone educated. Thank you, pay your tution.
I needed a better holster for my pistol, so I taught myself how to work leather and make that holster. Not just any holster will do. It has to be up there with the best, I will make it so. I began on the internet by searching and reading all that I could find on the subject. I purchased tools to work leather and purchased the leather for the holster.
I made that holster after about 6 months of study and experimentation. I now feel that I can make many things from leather because I taught myself how to do this work. I also applied this self learning to metalworking, woodworking, and CNC. I built a metal lathe from parts on ebay for on specific make and model. Same with a wood lathe. I have built 2 CNC router machines by studying how they work and are built.
The point here is that the idea that we must sit in a classroom to learn is BS. If we learn how to learn, then we can teach ourselves almost anything we want. When I was in the Navy, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend Instructor Training school. They taught me how to learn and I have the textbook from which I learned this valuable lesson. Then they taught me how to teach and I still mentor and teach today.
First we learn how to think, then we learn how to analyze, then we learn how to apply, then we solve problems. More on learning how to learn in a future post. Should be fun.
Fair seas and following winds.
Chief.
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