Think like an engineer

Engineers are educated to solve problems in specific domains. Some build bridges, others build airplanes, cars, machinery, antennas, microchips, software, etc. What's common for all engineers is that we are problem solvers.

When we face a new problem, we try to break it down in smaller pieces to understand the problem, then think about different alternatives to solve the sub problems, and finally we come up with a plan for the main problem. One interesting thing is that when we are not so sure about something, we can test, evaluate and decide if the approach is good or not and we can adjust our plan.

All that works well when we are in our domain, but when we try to solve a problem in a different domain things get interesting... The thing is: we are still engineers, so we try to apply our methodologies and processes to the new domain, it's just that we have variables we don't fully understand.

Let me give you a real life example. I'm a computer engineer, I build software. "Sometimes" (cough) my desktop can get a little messy, I have headphones, USB and audio cables everywhere, and I wanted to put some order there. I could put everything in a drawer, but I needed instant access since I use them all the time, so needed to be on sight. That's "the problem".

After a while considering options, I decided to put my wood working skills at test and build three small cylinders to attach them to the wall so I can hold my stuff there. The first thing was to find something that I can use as the raw material for my cylinders. I thought of an old broomstick but I didn't have one. Then I found a closet hanger that I wasn't using,which seemed OK for the job.

The first thing was to define the length of the cylinders, which would be determine by the things I need to hang and the length of the screw I thought could be used to secure the cylinder to the wall. So I found a perfect mix of screw length and cylinder length and thought of making a countersink hole on the cylinder to make the screw go a little deeper into the wall.

The second task was to cut the cylinders to the right length. By chance I had a small saw with a guide, which was perfect to do a straight cut. So this was my "sawing station". I just marked the right length with pencil and the rest was history.

After that, I needed to paint them white, since my wall is white. I painted a first coat with a brush but it didn't make a good job, so I tried to dip the whole thing in the paint, but for that I needed to hold the cylinders with something, so I screwed the same screws I wanted to use for the installation on the wall, but just screwing them a little bit on the back. So before painting and drilled the countersink holes on the front and I finished on from the back since I don't have a wood drill bit long enough for this length. After attaching the screws on the back I dipped the cylinders in the paint, but I didn't have anything to hold them down while drying. Another problem! So I improvised a drying station, drilling and opening three holes in a long wooded stick I had lying around, and hanged the cylinders to let them drip for a while.

The coat was better this time, but took forever to dry since it was thicker. Another problem! Though since I was using the heater at my office, I just put the thing in front of the heater and created my "drying station".

While that was drying, I thought of doing something else that could accelerate the whole process, so I started to see where to install them. Took some measurements and drilled small holes (always drill smaller holes than the size of your screws!). That was easy!

Finally, when everything was dry, I put a screw through each cylinder and attached them to the wall. In software engineering we call this "deployment to production".

And finally... "testing on production".

You might be asking why am I showing this to you? Is it all about me bragging about my woodworking skills? Nope.

This is my take to you: engineers are problem solvers, but sometimes we are out of our domain, we don't have experience, we don't have the right tools, we don't even know if our solutions will work. But I can assure you, when an engineer has a clear goal and motivation, we can find a good solution. It might not be the fastest one, the prettiest one, or the cheaper one, but it will work.

If you are solving any problem, think like an engineer, even if you are not one.