Engineers have a tough life. I mean what other profession has to deal with stress, pressure and strain? It sounds like engineers have a lot in common with mental health professionals.
If you are a fluids engineer like I am, then strain itself is not enough. What matters is how fast the strain happens (the rate of strain). This affects the viscosity of a fluid.
Someone asked me recently about whether engineers have enthalpy (which is not the same as empathy, by the way). What is enthalpy? It is the sum of internal energy (u) and work (done by a fluid, P/ρ). Do engineers have internal energy? I hope so! But it is fair to say that some socially challenged engineers do not show much internal energy. What about work? Do engineers do work? Again, I hope so! If engineers have internal energy and do work, then one would conclude engineers do have enthalpy – at least the ones who are not socially challenged do. And I hope engineers have empathy too. But empathy can’t be quantified like enthalpy can.
What else can we say about engineers? Engineers deal with rigidity and flexibility. No one likes rigidity very much. Except when they are inside of a building or on a bridge!
No one likes people who create friction. Engineers have to deal with friction every day.
Has anything I have said here resonated with you? If so, that is a good thing because engineers also deal with resonance.
Finally, engineers also deal with fatigue. You may be experiencing fatigue from reading this. So, let’s save the discussion about engineers and fatigue for another day…
AFT President & Founder | ASME Fellow - Trey founded AFT in 1993. He was the original developer of AFT Fathom (including the GSC and XTS modules), AFT Arrow and AFT Impulse. He was active in software development until 2011 and still works with the development team in addition to managing AFT. He has taught hundreds of training classes on AFT’s software products in twelve countries across every populated continent. He worked previously for General Dynamics in cryogenic rocket design and Babcock & Wilcox in steam/water equipment design. He holds a BSME (1985) and MSME (1986), both from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a registered Professional Engineer.