Intelligence

[Greybeard]

There are many different specialisms in engineering but all share the same qualities of being able to adapt and think "out of the box" rather than following a set process.

I believe that is the way to judge a person's intelligence. It's got nothing to do with education, which may help with knowledge of solutions.

I have an example from yesterday.
We were given a large, range style cooker. I transported it home in my small Halfords metal trailer. It took me, my wife and our daughter to get it into the trailer. Next day my wife had a back pain so could not help with getting it off the trailer and under the carport, so the job was down to me.
I had some thinks. I found four rubber tyred castors in the garage and fixed them to a square of thick plywood to make a sturdy dolly. The trailer has a tipping function but I've never used it. I had to free off the stuck handwheel for the locking piece. I hitched the trailer to the car so it would not start moving. I put a couple of webbing straps on the cooker, tipped the trailer bed and used the webbing to slow the slide of the cooker. The cooker slid nicely out onto a pile of rags. After moving the trailer away I turned the cooker onto its side on a couple of old tyres. My home made dolley was then strapped onto the bottom of the cooker with webbing straps, (aren't they a wonderful invention?). Turned the cooker upright and simply rolled it down the slope into the carport. No Greybeards were hurt during the making of this process. My wife was suitably underwhelmed at my ingenuity.

I don't claim to be a genius but I do have an engineers mind. Do you have any examples to share?

[Black Sheep]

Just last week my wife and I were locked out of the house in the freezing dark when the mechanism failed - the handle would turn, the door remained shut. I had reached the point of looking for the least expensive window to break when wifey suggested taking the handle off and seeing if it was possible to get at the mechanism. I did and I was able to grasp the remains of the broken square-section bar with pliers and turn it letting us in. She was a nurse, I trained as an engineer...

[Greybeard]

Just last week my wife and I were locked out of the house in the freezing dark when the mechanism failed - the handle would turn, the door remained shut. I had reached the point of looking for the least expensive window to break when wifey suggested taking the handle off and seeing if it was possible to get at the mechanism. I did and I was able to grasp the remains of the broken square-section bar with pliers and turn it letting us in. She was a nurse, I trained as an engineer...

Karma given to your wife!

[Greybeard]

Just last week my wife and I were locked out of the house in the freezing dark when the mechanism failed - the handle would turn, the door remained shut. I had reached the point of looking for the least expensive window to break when wifey suggested taking the handle off and seeing if it was possible to get at the mechanism. I did and I was able to grasp the remains of the broken square-section bar with pliers and turn it letting us in. She was a nurse, I trained as an engineer...

I think one of the negatives about having engineering thought process's is overthinking the solution. Often I've been struggling to work out a problem when wifey says; "Why don't you just...".

At first, I think, "What do you know!", but later, after struggling for a bit longer, and maybe loosing more skin, I'm forced to accept that her simple answer is the best. And doesn't she let me know how pleased she is! 

[muskrat]

G'day GB.
I too tend to overthink things.
As a 3rd year F&T apprentice the foreman gave me a technical machining job. It was an apparatus to test the joints of 4" high pressure gas pipes. It was designed by an "engineer" fresh out of university probably only a few years older than me. I studied the drawing and said to the foreman that it wouldn't hold a fart as the o ring dimensions were wrong. He mentioned it to the "engineer" but he was adamant it was right. So I made it as per drawing. Took me two days and quite a bit of stainless steel. The boss's all gathered for the test and yes it failed. The foreman then asked me to fix it. Took another day and more stainless. Passed the test by holding twice the pressure than it was meant to.
During my 4th year (tech school finished) I started a Mechanical Engineers course. The trouble was one of the nights was also my bike clubs "social sip" night. So bikes, booze and broads got in the way and I dropped out.
Cheers

[edboy]

i have always found to work as part of a team [ including forums ] is the best problem solving as someone usually comes up with a better solution than mine.

[Greybeard]

I am able to work in a team, but I've always preferred to work alone. If there are other people around I tend to leave the organising to them. When I am on my own I can concentrate.

[berger]

I have not been to the pub, well the we know best because we went to uni and are in charge of decisions doesn't hold well with me--- musky you have reminded me of an electric motor driven pump that had a ball race howling in pain, I was on afternoon shift on the Thursday and wanted to  put the  spare pump on and get the bearing changed, foreman said leave it for the dayshift I will put a report in the book. I was then off on the Friday but started days Saturday and could still hear the pump screaming in agony from 150yrds away. I got the foremen to have words with the mechanical foreman with a view to get this sorted and told him if we don't put the spare on and sort this it will end up burning the motor out it was vibrating that much. word came back to me that it wouldn't burn out if anything it will trip out so it was left to scream in agony. at 10 oclock in the morning  just as I had got the kettle on to have my break all went to silence. I watched the control panel and saw tank levels rising rapidly, I ran to the pump just in time to see the cooling fan on the motor come to a stop [ I told them it would burn out] I got the spare on and phoned the foreman's office and a very short while later the mechanical and the electrical and the shift foremen all arrive with a fitter and an electrician. I told them I had been in the switch room and it hadn't tripped it had burnt out. then came the very heated verbal between me and all of them because I had missed my break because of their incompetence. this was in the late 80's when the bearing would have cost about 15 £s  . the result was a new motor and pump unit at nearly 6 grand but that didn't matter because they had shown their authority and I was to do as I was told, for those of you in GT Britain this was just after the miners strike when the thatcher government were flooding us with arrogant uni educated    [never had hands on experience ] yes men who were sent to make us know who was in charge even though they were costing a fortune in errors.- o well pub is calling  for tomorrow

[duTch]

 'Intelligence' is an oxymoron to the n'th degree....lazy rules...
 When I was fairly fresh on the workforce, a guy (I think it was the first kiwi I met as an adult) told me if a crap job needs to be done, it requires the laziest person to do it.... they'll find the quickest and easiest possible way ( other than pass it on to someone else)...I totally took that on board

[kiwipom]

hi guys, Dutch a mate of mine here told me that same saying, clever those kiwi,s eh, cheers

[cyclobutch]

I'd have just left it until the missus was up to the job.