Can you be a good engineer and at the same time abe a human?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the balance between being a successful engineer and maintaining a social life, including relationships and personal well-being. Participants explore the stereotypes associated with engineers and physicists, as well as the feasibility of pursuing engineering while engaging socially.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express a desire to excel in math and physics while maintaining a balanced social life.
  • Others suggest that many engineers are socially active, often being married and having children.
  • A few participants humorously assert that the best engineers are "Vulcans," implying a stereotype of engineers as socially inept.
  • Some argue that engineers can be normal and social, contrasting them with physicists, who are perceived as more eccentric.
  • There are claims that involvement in engineering clubs can enhance social experiences and prevent social isolation.
  • Participants discuss the amount of study and work hours required for engineering, with some noting that practical experience can substitute for traditional study time.
  • Several comments touch on the attractiveness of engineers and physicists, with playful banter about dating and perceptions of beauty.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on whether engineers can maintain a social life while being successful in their field. Multiple competing views exist regarding the social capabilities of engineers versus physicists, and the discussion remains unresolved.

Contextual Notes

Some statements reflect personal biases and experiences, which may not represent the broader engineering community. The discussion includes humor and informal observations that may not be universally applicable.

AlexES16
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I wana become good at math and physics, and become a mechanical engineer. I will like to make contributions to society. But can you be good at this withouth loosing a balanced social life, having a girlfirend and friends and make some exercise xD.
 
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Most of engineers I work with are married to a human so I believe they do socialize. They have children too :biggrin:
 
Absolutely not, everyone knows the best engineers are Vulcans.
 
rootX said:
Most of engineers I work with are married to a human so I believe they do socialize. They have children too :biggrin:

Hope so
 
Did you mean "be a human" or "ape a human"? :biggrin:
 
An engineer that wants a social life isn't a true engineer...
 
EnumaElish said:
Did you mean "be a human" or "ape a human"? :biggrin:

HHAHAHA good observation. I just will to know to know if you can do your passion without becoming social incapacitated.
 
djeikyb said:
An engineer that wants a social life isn't a true engineer...

Hu?
 
I don't know...engineers seem fairly normal. It's the physicists who are weird people. But even we have social lives. In fact, physicists in general seem to be fairly knowledgeable on a diverse range of topics. I don't think that being eclectic is the same as being weird.
 
  • #10
Tedjn said:
Absolutely not, everyone knows the best engineers are Vulcans.

mates once every seven years? seems a bit optimistic.
 
  • #11
Join a few of the mainstream clubs (not so much an anime club or D&D club (not to poke fun)) or some of the larger engineering clubs. You'll get plenty of social experience. I know engineers from both extremes of the spectrum, if you want to avoid becoming non-human interact with other humans.
 
  • #12
arunma said:
I don't know...engineers seem fairly normal. It's the physicists who are weird people. But even we have social lives. In fact, physicists in general seem to be fairly knowledgeable on a diverse range of topics. I don't think that being eclectic is the same as being weird.

maybe physicists are more weird, but i seem to get along fine in my physics classes. it's the engineers who i think are the real awkward ones. they refuse to talk. TALK!
 
  • #13
In my last physics class we had one aspiring physicist. 1 physicist to sixty undergrads of other disciplines.
 
  • #14
Well getting girls as an engineer or attractivness of an engineer? xD
 
  • #15
AUK 1138 said:
maybe physicists are more weird, but i seem to get along fine in my physics classes. it's the engineers who i think are the real awkward ones. they refuse to talk. TALK!
Maybe it is you who is weird and thus gets along better with the weird physicists rather than the engineers??
 
  • #16
Dude how much is the work/study hours a day to be a good engineer? i mean you have to be refreshing the memory and learning more.
 
  • #17
Klockan3 said:
Maybe it is you who is weird and thus gets along better with the weird physicists rather than the engineers??


There's nothing wrong with that. Weird physicists are generally extremely interesting people.
 
  • #18
Actually, if someone were to ask me to suggest a career or field of study where you can use math and science but still have a life, I think engineering would be high on the list.

Like everything, it also depends on where specifically you work and your own approach to the work/social life balance, pace of career advancement or salary increases, etc., but I think engineering has a lot of opportunities where you can do both and do both well.

I've met many engineers, and they all seem pretty social and normal (keep in mind that I'm a scientist type too, so my perception of normal might be skewed a bit), and of course I might only meet the social ones...selection bias.
 
  • #19
AlexES16 said:
Dude how much is the work/study hours a day to be a good engineer? i mean you have to be refreshing the memory and learning more.

While I'm not an engineer, my roommate is. He only does a couple hours a week of actual studying, studying as in reading or reviewing notes for classes. However, that's mostly because in practical (real) majors like engineering and physics, study time is mostly the same as homework time.
I will also say that for engineering, "study time" doesn't have to be actual studying. Hands on experiences in many college activities provides engineering experience and gives you an opportunity to learn useful things outside of a classroom. For example, engineers at the University of Oklahoma compete in several things. One team builds an off-road vehicle and goes to national competition (http://students.sae.org/competitions/bajasae/about.htm). There are lots of other competitions as well- Design-Build-Fly is another awesome one.

In short, don't let "hours spent studying" be a deciding factor in picking a major.
 
  • #20
Moonbear said:
Actually, if someone were to ask me to suggest a career or field of study where you can use math and science but still have a life, I think engineering would be high on the list.

Like everything, it also depends on where specifically you work and your own approach to the work/social life balance, pace of career advancement or salary increases, etc., but I think engineering has a lot of opportunities where you can do both and do both well.

I've met many engineers, and they all seem pretty social and normal (keep in mind that I'm a scientist type too, so my perception of normal might be skewed a bit), and of course I might only meet the social ones...selection bias.

I didn't think about it that way, but you are right on there. The opinion here may be a little skewed because many of us here are either scientists or engineers and we may be a little biased. I think I prefer the science human beings to the non-science human beings. I prefer the monkeys who don't throw poo as often.
 
  • #21
Pattonias said:
I didn't think about it that way, but you are right on there. The opinion here may be a little skewed because many of us here are either scientists or engineers and we may be a little biased. I think I prefer the science human beings to the non-science human beings. I prefer the monkeys who don't throw poo as often.

Hahaha pretty well, well there can be a nother question have an engineer(good engineer) dated a perfect 10 xD?
 
  • #22
Moonbear said:
Actually, if someone were to ask me to suggest a career or field of study where you can use math and science but still have a life, I think engineering would be high on the list.

Like everything, it also depends on where specifically you work and your own approach to the work/social life balance, pace of career advancement or salary increases, etc., but I think engineering has a lot of opportunities where you can do both and do both well.

I've met many engineers, and they all seem pretty social and normal (keep in mind that I'm a scientist type too, so my perception of normal might be skewed a bit), and of course I might only meet the social ones...selection bias.

Yeah i think is a balance.
 
  • #23
Another interesting( dumb) question. Have any engineer/scientist of this forum dated a really beutifull girl i mean we can say a perfect 10, don't come with the thing that there is no perfect 10 take is as a very beutifull girl.??
 
  • #24
You mean a perfect 10 for me or a perfect 10 for MTV? I think I've got a 10 and hopefully she doesn't decide I'm unworthy, because I have no reason to be this lucky.
 
  • #25
If you want the ladies, you should probably go into physics...
 
  • #26
djeikyb said:
If you want the ladies, you should probably go into physics...

So girls are attracted to physicist...
 
  • #27
Pattonias said:
You mean a perfect 10 for me or a perfect 10 for MTV? I think I've got a 10 and hopefully she doesn't decide I'm unworthy, because I have no reason to be this lucky.


Think in a really beautiful girl
 
  • #28
EnumaElish said:
Did you mean "be a human" or "ape a human"? :biggrin:
I thought it was "Can you be a good engineer and Abe be a human?" That's true if you are a good engineer and Abe is a human. :biggrin::biggrin:
 
  • #29
AlexES16 said:
So girls are attracted to physicist...

We can be sure that girls are affected by physics, I don't know about the attraction.
 
  • #30
I'm a physicist, and I attract everyone in the known universe with a force proportional to the product of our masses and inversely proportional to the distance between us squared.
 

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