NO lawyers.
Anonymous, you're not gonna get much traction with me by badmouthing engineers. I love engineers. They're so straight and easy to be with. They just want a problem definition and then they're happy for hours, figuring it out. Engineers don't make things difficult, or want to have long painful conversations about abstract things.
I mean, if I were with an engineer, our conversations would go like this:
Megan: I wonder what effect term limits have had on the quality of local politics. I mean, since people at the top are constantly termed out, does that mean that there has been a constant draw on local politicians to replace them, constantly skimming the cream?
Hot Engineer Boyfriend: Hmmm, sure, I guess.
Megan: 'Cause it doesn't seem like experienced politicians come back to the local level after they get termed out...
By this point, a true engineer should already have a pained look on his face and be fidgeting. He'll crack soon.
Hot Engineer Boyfriend: Um, baby? I saw a broken thing earlier and it's still bothering me. Can I go fix it?
Megan: YES! Thank you, baby. I'll have your blowjob ready when you get done. What do you want for dinner?
See how easy that is? See how no one gets sucked into abstract debates without enough information? See how things get fixed without my doing all of it? I'm trying to be openminded about dating other types of people, like scientists. Shit, at this point I might even consider someone from the humanities, as long as he doesn't think his feelings are data. But I'll always think engineers are great.
I mean, if I were with an engineer, our conversations would go like this:
Megan: I wonder what effect term limits have had on the quality of local politics. I mean, since people at the top are constantly termed out, does that mean that there has been a constant draw on local politicians to replace them, constantly skimming the cream?
Hot Engineer Boyfriend: Hmmm, sure, I guess.
Megan: 'Cause it doesn't seem like experienced politicians come back to the local level after they get termed out...
By this point, a true engineer should already have a pained look on his face and be fidgeting. He'll crack soon.
Hot Engineer Boyfriend: Um, baby? I saw a broken thing earlier and it's still bothering me. Can I go fix it?
Megan: YES! Thank you, baby. I'll have your blowjob ready when you get done. What do you want for dinner?
See how easy that is? See how no one gets sucked into abstract debates without enough information? See how things get fixed without my doing all of it? I'm trying to be openminded about dating other types of people, like scientists. Shit, at this point I might even consider someone from the humanities, as long as he doesn't think his feelings are data. But I'll always think engineers are great.
posted by Megan at 5:12 PM
13 Comments:
You must have missed the part where I said I'm an EE myself. Living in the bay area. I've worked at Intel, AMD, and a couple of startup companies. But, all of my EE friends from work are very non-athletic. They're more the, let's sit around in our respective apartments, type of people. I do like engineers, they're amusing, they're just not much use for climbing, and camping, and hiking, and going to the beach, and basketball, and all the other BS I like to do, unfortunately.
So, if you're looking for someone who's going to be active and fun, generally speaking, engineers don't fit the description. They're great if you want to play board games, or video games, or watch movies, or play pool, or poker, or darts. All fun time killers, but, not such good exercise.
But, in my experience, people from the pure sciences are great. Chemists, physicists, etc.... They tend to like being active, and are ridiculously smart to boot.
I work in a shop that does combined hardware/software development. If I had to describe the hardware (i.e. EE) side of the building I'd say they are overweight and out of shape; only one of them ever shows up in the company gym.
On the software side of the building there's a group that goes rock climbing every Tuesday and Thursday; the people who spar (striking and grappling) in the gym on Wednesdays; the three people I play tennis with are all software types; the company softball team is entirely composed of the software side of the building. When I lived in Boston every software person I knew played ultimate two or three times a week. My introduction to the game was during my first lunch there where we walked to a nearby park and played a pickup game for 30 minutes. The pickup game I played at Tufts University on Saturday mornings consisted almost exclusively of public school teachers and software engineers. The MIT games were a more diverse crowd.
Well... I'm about ready for a steaming hot plate of Los Osos. Dish it! (and a side of non-fruit pie) Any further discussion about sucking better involve a septic system.
Hang on, help me understand how this is an abstract conversation? It is a conversation for which you have no data, but for which data is available. It is one where you can define the question somewhat narrowly and look at local politicians in your area to see if there's anything to learn there.
It seems to me that you're saying all conversations where the participants don't have a complete grasp of all possible data is "abstract." Are you anti-speculation? That's a rather broad brush, don't you think?
[Oh--if you're interested in the abstract topic you introduced, check out Term Limits and State Legislatures by Carey, Niemi & Powell (2000).]
As long as we're dealing in gross generalities, I'd like to put in a good word about economists. They're social science-types who think they're scientists. Also, I find economically-minded people to be well-rounded intellectually. (But admittedly not usually too athletic.)
On the other hand, an economist would only fix something himself if he determined that the value of his time in fixing it was not greater than the value of hiring somebody else to fix it. Or better yet, waiting for his engineer-type girlfriend to fix it first.
By the way, an economist would not refer to his feelings--he would talk about his preferences, and would be interested in moving your relationship to a higher indifference curve and a Pareto-optimal outcome. That's pretty hot talk for an economist.
t_Nick,
To be more general, we economists would repair things ourselves until the marginal benefit of doing so equaled the marginal cost. I like fixing things, so I'll hang shelving or fiddle with the lock on the front door, since I derive part of my happiness from "being useful around the house." But if you need a new transmission, I'll get the friendly neighborhood mechanic on the phone. Stat.
-hamilton
Jason - I know! Everyone misses Los Osos. But I have to wait until there is a story in the news about it. There was a piece a couple weeks back; the law firm that convinced them to fight to the end is under investigation for bilking them. I need more than that to write a whole post, though.
Well put, Hamilton! I love marginal utility. Reading this site provides a pretty high marginal utility for me. The cost of my reading this site is borne mainly by my firm. Since I gain the benefit but suffer little of the cost (at least until my boss wonders why I haven't gotten any work done), I consume more of this site than is ideal.
t_nick,
As a lazy-a** grad student, I bear the complete cost of 'From the Archives' and its commenters. And it is totally worth it.
cheers,
hamilton
An attractive female engineer has just announced her desire for a boyfriend on whom she wishes to lavish home-cooked meals and oral sex while avoiding abstract or emotional conversations. Eventually some economically-minded engineer is going to decide that the cost of moving to Sacramento to take her up on it is less than the cost of taking other women out on dates that go nowhere and/or going blowjobless indefinitely.
Capella, apparently you don't realize just how much Sacramento sucks. It's like living in Urbana, minus all the life, and energy, and nice, educated people, of the college campus there.
On the plus side though, houses in Sac are affordable, while a 700sqft condo in the bay area here is $450k.
Having been in engineering, science, and social science, and being a science guy, I have the most fun with other science types. anon's first post sums up what I've seen. I'm just not nerdy enough to be a straight-up engineer.
Megan, I'm going to need a fix before the mainstream media catches up. It might be time to wade into the deep end. "Lost Osos: The Untold Story" -- an interview with the deposed council members living in exile and their plan to retake the council. Or there's "M(eg)Tv's: Behind the Mierda" -- an explosive tale of town in the grips of a Crohn's Disease epidemic and their need for the need board to shit or get off the pot. I think you could really run with this.
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