Ads

Monday, February 25, 2008

Engineering Quote

I was studying for quals and saw this quote at the beginning of a chapter.

"The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects, cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot, like the politicians, screen his short-comings by blaming his opponents and hope the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned."
-Herbert Hoover
Get !@#$ done. Make it work. Build real things. Paper studies are only useful if they are used to guide the building of something that can be tested.

No comments: