Human Beings Should Be Able To ROCK IT. Specialization is for Insects.

Out of the list of awesome things you’ve accomplished, including bathing a kitty, chopping celery and catching a pineapple in your mouth, there’s some other things as a human being, and even more, as a design engineer, you should be able to do. If not, you’re doomed.

In response to a guest post here on SolidSmack called Design Engineers, Look Out. You are becoming Extinct, by Matthew Loew, Stephanie Moore-Fuller wrote a rebuttal. It’s an extremely valid article.

The argument is great, but what I loved most was the quote she used from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein (Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land). It sums up and solves a lot of messes and arguments that plague our worries and inaction. Even better, if you said the same thing to anyone, you would likely just get a blank stare back. Here’s the quote…

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

_{Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) from character Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love}

Stephanie goes on to say. “I agree with him, and while there are things on his list I haven’t yet done, there are others I have done that he didn’t list, like milk a cow or weave a cloth. I agree with Matthew’s list of what a mechanical engineer should be able to do. But just because I haven’t done something lately, that doesn’t mean I don’t have the brains and the drive to figure it out!”

Well said Stephanie.

If you’re interested in more quotes by Heinlein, check out the Heinlein Wikiquote page.

Tagged as: design engineer, engineering process, industrial design, mechanical engineering, quotes, rober heinlein