RE: Do'ers and Doubters (was observation about engineers)

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

[...]

> As a "bash it with a hammer until it obeys" type of person 
> myself, I can
> appreciate the more thoughtful methods of my engineering 
> pals. They can
> usually reason through problems with greater precision and handle more
> fundamentally complex problems (like programming). But, I 
> also know that
> eventually, you have to stop planning, thinking, and 
> pondering and start
> whacking things (or people) with hammers if you want to ever 
> get anything
> done. 
> 
> I would also appreciate only reactionary, illogical and irate 
> responses to
> this post - so that I can look like a genius. :-)

Well hell!  Always glad to oblige.

The low file cabinet in my cube is at the entrance. 
I keep a few of those bent-metal puzzle thingies there. 
I tell people that there's a reason I don't have a guest 
chair in my cube, and that the angular pointy objects 
are useful to keep opportunistic bums from using the 
top of the cabinet as a seat.  Actually, they are an 
amusement (one could say attractive nuisance... :-) 
and conversation starter, and have started a trend of 
other folks bringing in wood-block, rope, etc. puzzles.

We've noticed a divide similar to what Andrew mentions, 
except that this tech writer, SOME of the Customer Support 
crew most of sales and at least half the engineers seem 
to be "bash until" types.

But here's the scary part. A couple of engineers and one 
sales type immediately took an analytical approach (complete 
with tables and sketches) and solved several puzzles in a 
fraction of the time that we "bash until" types took.

One puzzle ("Ages 5 to 95", it sez on the box) is a big 
cardboard triangle, cut into nine smaller triangles. The 
big triangle has a bunch of cartoon lizards printed on it, 
and the object is to lay out the pieces into a big triangle 
such that all appropriate lizard-bits match up. That one gave 
the most dramatic demonstration of the analytic approach 
defeating the "bash until" approach.   Dammit.

In terms of work, at our small company, the engineers all 
receive the e-mail that comes to our Customer Support 
mailbox. Only Customer Support are allowed to reply to 
customers. For the rest of us, it's info-only and in-house 
discussion. 
I notice that the official Customer Support folks do some 
analysis, but usually make gestalt and recipe responses. 
Sometimes it works, but often the customer replies that 
s/he has already tried that (whatever that is) or that it 
doesn't address the problem. The engineers often take 
longer to reply, but come up with an analysis and suggested 
solution that works.  In other words, "bash until" seems 
to work best with situations we've met before, or situations 
that are analogs of ones we've met.

But, there's a third category of problem. Our stuff needs to 
work in conjunction with third-party software and systems. 
A goodly number of incoming problems are resolved only by 
a combination of Customer Support and development engineers, 
because the development engineers don't have the exposure 
to customer/third-party systems that the support people do.
The "bash until" and the deep analytical approaches must 
combine to solve many of the problems because the information, 
experience, and capabilities of the individual groups are 
insufficient.

When I write a document, I need both approaches not least 
because my audience encompasses both kinds of people. 
So, not only do I include the step-by-step, how to get there 
from here, stuff in my docs, I also like to include some 
of the whys and wherefores, for the people who prefer to 
understand before acting... as opposed to those who jump 
in with both feet, and then try to figure out later what 
went wrong.   :-)

So, I'm neither supporting nor refuting, here. I'm just 
tossing in some additional mud and stirring a bit. 
Have fun, y'all.

/kevin


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