Quote from: tekla on July 09, 2009, 09:59:29 AM
Well, to answer the question, "Who defines the problems?"  Society tends to in the end.  Engineering tends to follow - if not worship - money (its the mother's milk of more than politics 'ya know), and at some point, putting up the money for the solution is a social/cultural deal, not an engineering deal. And the end decision - to adopt or not - is never an engineering solution, its always a social and cultural decision. 

That's why solutions exist that are not put into practice.

The Greeks had steam power.  They used it for a trick or two, like opening the doors to the Temple at Delphi when one went to see the Oracle.  But they never sought to apply that power on a more widespread basis, saving labor was not in the best interest of a slave culture.  Keeping slaves busy - not idle - is in the best interest of a slave culture.

Or, try this one.  The Chinese invented/discovered gunpowder.  They used it to create one of the most beautiful technological things in the history of the world, aerial pyrotechnics - fireworks to the layperson.  When the Europeans saw them, their first thought was, "hey, lets use that to kill people" and promptly invented the gun and the cannon.  A society like China, one that valued harmony and stability had less than zero use for a weapon that would allow a small group to equalize its numeric disadvantage with a larger group.  Europe at that time saw it in just the opposite way.

Even the choice of what task a computer must/should solve is driven by market forces more than anything else.  While Woz may have been a true engineer, looking for a way to make somethings work in a smaller and more user friendly way - it was the apps as it were (and two in particular, word processing and spreadsheets/accounting) that really drove the initial sales of personal computers by radically changing the way two basic business tasks were accomplished. Computers still are used for the basic reason they were invented - doing mass calculations - but to put on in every office, and then every home, required it doing something more than stress calculations or working though firing solutions for weapons (the original two uses).  And while Woz and Apple deserve a lot of praise for what they did, Wang with its original word processing machines, and Lotus 1-2-3 deserve some credit for doing things that first business, and then ordinary persons wanted to do.

So while engineers 'solve' problems, they don't often get to define what the 'problem' to be solved is.

Tekla, I thought I already answered this, in the Engineering term "KIS" (keep it simple) Money is the bottom line. 

Hi . ..   Dont ever be put off doing what is close to your heart . wether male or female . remember  women can do any thing.     as a transfemale . whos a andro . at 61 .
after leaving school i went in to cabinat making . then building . did farming & fixed car.s truck.s tractors & any thing that moved on wheels . & for the last 11 years. still did building as a woman ....work wise  nothing has changed . only i have retired..  we have many women over here  doing so called male work .  go to some other county.s & who does the work ... women ....so just be your self & go with your heart .
     ...noeleena...

I guess i'd be classified as a software engineer/consultant, although in the last few years i've moved up to more of a hired troubleshooter/project manager/senior tech position. Happiness in my younger years was growing my hair out while slinging lines of code and rocking out; now I seem to sit in meetings all day long, I have no hair and I oversee what other people do. Boring. I'd really like to break out of this profession and do something else, but I haven't figured out what that something else might be. I keep thinking about it a lot though.

Quote from: riven_oneI'd really like to break out of this profession and do something else, but I haven't figured out what that something else might be. I keep thinking about it a lot though.

What are you passionate about? What is it you enjoy doing? If slinging code was what gave you pleasure then maybe its time to go back to basics. If you're considering changing careers anyways then even if this means a cut in pay it might be worth it if you look forward to waking up every morning to face another work day.

Tekla,

Sorry to be so late in responding to you...

When I say "problem solver" I mean just that--in a systems analyst kind of way.

When you wait in line for a checker at the grocery store, and the other lines seem to be moving faster than yours, that's a problem.

When the evaporative cooler can't bring the temperature of the house down more than 20F from the outside temperature, that's a problem.

Anything that does not work as well as it should is a problem, be it a coffee pot, oven, lawn mower, power plant...whatever.

As a systems analyst, I find solutions to these problems, and a crazy variety of others....

Geology is cool. I really enjoyed the few undergrad classes I took, though not enough to persue it as a major. I'm actually a UW-Milwaukee grad. (Go Panthers!) Not that I'm actually doing anything with my history degree. Once upon a time I saw myself persuing a PhD in history but that fell by the wayside. Now I just don't know. I had been driving bus for a while but I'm not working right now so that I can take care of a family member who is seriously ill.
Lately I've been thinking about going back to school for an MS in Art Therapy but that's still up in the air. One of these days I'll sort it all out. I just need to stop being so indecisive. I'm just a big ball of dunno. : )