Guilt Saves Lives [and money]

Approximately 10 years ago my world fell through the floor in an instant.

I had just finished designing a new foundations scheme for a big property developer, it was my first completely unaided design project.

Just as I was about to turn the calculations over [Scheme A] to a checking Engineer, I decided to pull out a similar previous scheme [Scheme B] as a control subject. I needed to do this as I was still a design rookie. A quick investigation to see if the loads were similar - that's all I needed to do.

The two housing schemes were practically identical, apart from Scheme B's foundations [already built] were constructed from piled ground beams.

First glances told me that I may have been a bit conservative during the design of my first unaided design project. Infact the pudding seemed to have been over egged by as much as 100%!

Returning to my calculations I worked my way through them once more, and could't seem to justify any load reductions. Confusion set in.

It was then that I took the rather hard decision to review the mature scheme.  They were calculations which I had originally carried out, and once I thoroughly reviewed them, it was at that point in time my whole world came crashing down around me.

Essentially I had forgotten to multiply the floor loads by 2, as the foundation I was checking was on a party wall line. The 4-storey terraced home was already built, sold and no doubt families would be moving in soon.

What happened afterwards was one of the most uncomfortable conversations that I had ever had to have with another Engineer, my boss at the time.

Due to making that mistake, an obvious advantage to experiencing such hell was born. Since then, I have had the opportunity to 'save' many other Engineers from making that same mistake in their calculations. As it turns out, it is easily done and one of the very first things that I look at.

"Experience is simply the name we give to making mistakes" Oscar Wilde.

Still to this very day I feel pangs of guilt [controlled guilt] for what happened many years ago. But why?

Guilt is and incredibly difficult emotion to understand. Psychologists appear to be divided on how or why we evolved to feel guilty. The general consensus is that this destructive and stressful emotion helps balance our future interactions in our social circles.

All I know is that it is a persistent feeling which never seems to give up its host. The powerful negativity drives a massive change to behaviour and just like tooth ache, you never want to feel that pain ever again - if you can help it, that is.

Amongst many others, Dr David M.Amodio of the University of New York, and his team of researchers Patricia G.Devine and Eddie Harman-Jones studied the affects of what guilt has upon our psychology.

There was a theory being banded around by researchers that the punitive feeling of guilt may keep you from repeating the same transgressions of behaviour into the future, which psychologists call "withdrawal motivation."

Some researchers view guilt in a strictly societal context, in that; it keeps people's behavior in line with the moral standards of their community. This is a more positive emotional experience and is associated with "approach motivation."

What Dr Amodio believed was that guilt is initially associated with withdrawal motivation, which then transforms into approach-motivated behavior when an opportunity for reparation presents itself.

From painful experience, I can empathise with Dr Amodio and his researchers beliefs.

It would appear that we as Engineers need this deminutive emotion to help prevent us from re-enacting the same mistakes time and time again.

So next time, when it is presented to you that repeating the same mistakes is a bad thing, you will be able to associate this with the painful state of feeling guilty.

As it turns out, by tapping directly into this dark emotion and nurturing your feelings of guilt, you are not only saving lives and your bosses money, but you are attenuating the spectre of stress. Which could also be saving you from stress related health issues.

Guilt and feeling responsible for ones actions is as essential to the life of an Engineer, as 'the force' is to a Jedi Knight. Without it you are as normal as everybody else [Bantha fodder]. But with it, you can balance and protect society. Neat.



Engine[er]

PS. Links to be attached later

Engineering Perfectionism

It has been a great week for 'sticky' discussions on the LinkedIn engineering forums.

One topic in particular topic attracted quite a diverse and interesting following. It was started on a fresh new group - The GradEng Network.
[A group dedicated to building relationships between graduates, and sharing job search opportunities]

7 Reasons Why Perfectionism is a Barrier to Success.

I have my own interpretation of the key points made;

1. Unrealistic Expectations. No. Perfect does not equal millionaire! Who believes that? We live in a world where being perfect gets you a mediocre life. Investments of time, emotion, and money are made in imperfect people. People who have potential. Graduates need not be perfect... they need to have aspirations and demonstrate that they can grow as individuals and Engineers.

2. Make no Mistake. We all do. Think about this. If you are required to push a design to its limits, then you need professional back up. These checks help you sleep at night, and ensure the public are safe too. Dealing with domestic projects day in day out, I concentrate on buildability. There is no point in me designing a beam into a singularity if installing becomes impossible. Level the playing field, by accepting that their are potentially hundreds of ways of solving same design problem. None are wrong, and mistakes are easily rectified. Give it a try.

3. Seek no help. No man, woman or Engineer is an Island. I took great confidence from the fact that one day I was asked personally to help out a very experienced Engineer. He was stuck for ideas, and decided to enquire as to my strategy on a quirky problem. We both learned an awful amount that day I'm sure. From that day on I never felt embarrassed to ask questions, even off of newly qualified graduates. The beauty of design is that imagination and experience combined leads to so many cool possibilities... embrace that fact.

4. Planning. The process of planning is critical. Trust me, life never turns out exactly as planned BUT... without a plan you can't readjust your bearings and set you course back on track. An air-plane spends [apparently] 85% of its flight time off course. But, it always reaches its intended destination.

5. No Change. Quite the opposite. To be successful, we all have to accept that change is afoot. Constantly. Seems counter intuitive right? Once you accept that iterative failure is your only way to achieving a good result, life and learning becomes spontaneous and.... well, fun.

6. Future Focus. Now, I do not wholly agree with this point. You got to have a vision! That's your end game! Organise it in you mind then put it to one side. Once you got a plan, then build a strategy to reach it, piece meal style.

7. Lost in Detail. OK, let's get one thing straight, getting lost in the detail does not result in total failure!! It may inhibit future growth if you constantly return to that default setting, but failure it is not. On the contrary, it is those of us who fail to pick up on the nuances of the details in front of us who come to a sticky end. There is a time for laser like focus. There is a time to evaluate the surrounding environment. Balancing those points of views is critical to success.


Engine[er]