You're right about that... my cat's already caught two scorpions and several spiders in my house... and I have a disabled daughter that's lying on the floor most of the time... as far as I'm concerned, that cat's already earned his tenure for life...

Cats do scorpions? I've got to talk to my dog about that!
Scorpion stings really hurt.

 

...Scorpion stings really hurt.

so do cat's claws... they usually play around with them a little before crushing them

 

That's difficult enough on a college campus because most of the specialists there aren't in our specialty!

@#12 Not only that but schools don't teach ppl to think anymore (I'm not saying they ever did) so degrees are just _job tickets_ and rot goes all the way to Ivy League schools which are just glorified trade schools! And all institutions that rely on public or special interest funding are just brazen indoctrination centers to ideology of sponsor regime or pressure group! So I totally agree with what you're saying! Also tnx for kind thoughts!

Yea it's kind of frustrating sometimes. Especially when you meet some suposed expert in a field making big money for what they know and after less than 10 minutes of conversation with them casually picking their brain you find you can run circles around them

Tcmtech I know exactly what you mean! What really pi$$es me off is when I'm consulting with some credentialed _expert_ on high stakes situation and finding myself educating them in their area of _expertise_ And totally worst part is they're usually not even ashamed of their ignorance

 

There are institutes of higher learning that DO still teach you how to think. I offer two as examples.

MIT. They always have taught outside the box. Their new computer science building demonstrates their philosophy.

And my alma mater. Georgia Tech. I refently went to an alumni meeting and was pleased to find the educational environment that I experienced were still there.

 

What really pi$$es me off is when I'm consulting with some credentialed _expert_ on high stakes situation and finding myself educating them in their area of _expertise_ And totally worst part is they're usually not even ashamed of their ignorance

The joy of hiring a consultant.
- we hire consultants to either
1) confirm our internal plan. When we do that, we make the consultant work with either a very good actor (his role is to play dumb and not tip-off the consultant that we already have an opinion), or, someone not associated with the project.
2) when we really don't have an expert and need an expert opinion.

Either way, I really enjoy watching how pompous consultants act when they they come to make their sales pitch. Then they somehow manage to turn it up a notch when they are selected and come to work on the project. I don't know how they every day. No matter how we laugh at our consultants pompous cluelessness, I'm sure they go back to their hotel rooms thinking, "I killed it today" as they lay down and sleep like a baby since they have no responibility in running a commercial operation.

 

HP I say is hilarious how you shame ppl for talking abt ghosts and now you're on this thread talking abt parasitology

HP Now I'm saying if you don't get it plz just read this post out loud

 

There are institutes of higher learning that DO still teach you how to think. I offer two as examples.

MIT. They always have taught outside the box. Their new computer science building demonstrates their philosophy.

And my alma mater. Georgia Tech. I refently went to an alumni meeting and was pleased to find the educational environment that I experienced were still there.

Djsfantasi I take your word for it! Now I'm saying there is great irony in a school which basically identifies as a tech school (MIT) being one of the last REAL SCHOOLS standing

The joy of hiring a consultant.
- we hire consultants to either
1) confirm our internal plan. When we do that, we make the consultant work with either a very good actor (his role is to play dumb and not tip-off the consultant that we already have an opinion), or, someone not associated with the project.
2) when we really don't have an expert and need an expert opinion.

Either way, I really enjoy watching how pompous consultants act when they they come to make their sales pitch. Then they somehow manage to turn it up a notch when they are selected and come to work on the project. I don't know how they every day. No matter how we laugh at our consultants pompous cluelessness, I'm sure they go back to their hotel rooms thinking, "I killed it today" as they lay down and sleep like a baby since they have no responibility in running a commercial operation.

GhopherT I say it's at it's worst when like medical and legal _experts_ are just educated idiots cuz most ppl get touchy abt _little things_ like their health and liberty

 

Tcmtech I know exactly what you mean! What really pi$$es me off is when I'm consulting with some credentialed _expert_ on high stakes situation and finding myself educating them in their area of _expertise_ And totally worst part is they're usually not even ashamed of their ignorance

Years ago when I went back to college for my EE degree I was at NDSU in Fargo ND taking classes and got to know some of the students a year or so ahead of me that were doing research on grid tying a big solar panel array their department had on one building to the grid.

I got to asking my usual overly enthusiastic questions about their system and sort of gave them the impression that I likely had some working knowledge of how grid tie inverters worked, which I did. I had been playing with them for years as DIY poops and giggles toy devices relating to my own wind power stuff.

Any way ,they had me come over to their lab one day to show off their $100,000+ system that didn't work worth crap 80% of the time to see what I thought of it.
I had never seen so much computer power and processing nonsense ever thrown at a simple concept in my life! The kids were awesome about my critique and asked me how mine worked so I drew them up a schematic and gave them some rough numbers to work with while explaining how I did it.
Basically I showed them how I could have made a simple all analog based GTI capable of everything theirs did out of a old commercial forklift battery charger, a pair of high power IGBT blocks and parts from Digikey worth maybe $300 - $400 tops.

The kids who were there totally got what I was doing and why after maybe 15 minutes of explanation in common layman's terms and a few rough drawings of the how and why of what the control circuits were doing during each half of the AC waveform.

Their professor however, not a friggin clue. What I was dealing with was electronics department professor with tenure who obviously couldn't understand basic AC power system operation largely based on what I thought were basic college level Alternating Current physics principles since obviously his students who had such a class knew the basics without too much trouble.

Most baffling thing was not that he wanted to know how I came up with the design but what other professors or engineers taught me what I knew and what classes I had taken to that point to know such stuff.
The idea that some largely self taught guy in his late 20's with a two year trade school education could work with such things with such ease and explain it with nothing more than some paper, a pencil and a bit of high school level math was beyond his egos ability to accept. As far as he was concerned at 20 something years old and with a trade school education I simply didn't have the credentials to know that sort of stuff therefore it couldn't work.

A week or so later one of the kids I had shown my work to had replicated my design with a handful of old lab parts and confirmed I was right.
A old laboratory power supply/battery charger and $25 in Radio shack parts was all it took to make a rough 100 - 200 watt GTI unit that test benched as more stable than the professors multi year $100,000+ system had yet proven itself to be.

Granted it was at best 1/20th the capacity as what he was shooting for but the dang thing worked and worked embarrassingly well!
Control systems wise it was dumber than a rock but that's the beauty of simple analog his design lacked.
It didn't over think what it had to do. (that was his whole stumbling block, He was over thinking and thusly over controlling things that didn't need to be worried about) It just did it or burned out trying.


Basically this but less refined on the control circuitry. http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/grid-tie-inverter-schematic-2-0.105324/;)

 

Years ago when I went back to college for my EE degree I was at NDSU in Fargo ND taking classes and got to know some of the students a year or so ahead of me that were doing research on grid tying a big solar panel array their department had on one building to the grid.

I got to asking my usual overly enthusiastic questions about their system and sort of gave them the impression that I likely had some working knowledge of how grid tie inverters worked, which I did. I had been playing with them for years as DIY poops and giggles toy devices relating to my own wind power stuff.

Any way ,they had me come over to their lab one day to show off their $100,000+ system that didn't work worth crap 80% of the time to see what I thought of it.
I had never seen so much computer power and processing nonsense ever thrown at a simple concept in my life! The kids were awesome about my critique and asked me how mine worked so I drew them up a schematic and gave them some rough numbers to work with while explaining how I did it.
Basically I showed them how I could have made a simple all analog based GTI capable of everything theirs did out of a old commercial forklift battery charger, a pair of high power IGBT blocks and parts from Digikey worth maybe $300 - $400 tops.

The kids who were there totally got what I was doing and why after maybe 15 minutes of explanation in common layman's terms and a few rough drawings of the how and why of what the control circuits were doing during each half of the AC waveform.

Their professor however, not a friggin clue. What I was dealing with was electronics department professor with tenure who obviously couldn't understand basic AC power system operation largely based on what I thought were basic college level Alternating Current physics principles since obviously his students who had such a class knew the basics without too much trouble.

Most baffling thing was not that he wanted to know how I came up with the design but what other professors or engineers taught me what I knew and what classes I had taken to that point to know such stuff.
The idea that some largely self taught guy in his late 20's with a two year trade school education could work with such things with such ease and explain it with nothing more than some paper, a pencil and a bit of high school level math was beyond his egos ability to accept. As far as he was concerned at 20 something years old and with a trade school education I simply didn't have the credentials to know that sort of stuff therefore it couldn't work.

A week or so later one of the kids I had shown my work to had replicated my design with a handful of old lab parts and confirmed I was right.
A old laboratory power supply/battery charger and $25 in Radio shack parts was all it took to make a rough 100 - 200 watt GTI unit that test benched as more stable than the professors multi year $100,000+ system had yet proven itself to be.

Granted it was at best 1/20th the capacity as what he was shooting for but the dang thing worked and worked embarrassingly well!
Control systems wise it was dumber than a rock but that's the beauty of simple analog his design lacked.
It didn't over think what it had to do. (that was his whole stumbling block, He was over thinking and thusly over controlling things that didn't need to be worried about) It just did it or burned out trying.


Basically this but less refined on the control circuitry. http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/grid-tie-inverter-schematic-2-0.105324/;)

Tcmtech I say attitude of Prof is perfect example of ppl who are too cowardly to appreciate continuous nature of reality so they just hide behind paradigms (like inappropriate application of software control) that give illusion of _discrete_ universe Fwiw we have similar problems in abstract science with occasional IDIOTs who try to twist quantization into argument for a _grainy reality_ which is not what QM is abt at all! All the same as ppl who don't get the difference between equality and limit in transfinite math! So I say anyone who can't handle and comprehend analog design is not an EE! Just a programmer and probably a poor one at that!

Most baffling thing was not that he wanted to know how I came up with the design but what other professors or engineers taught me what I knew and what classes I had taken to that point to know such stuff.

Tcmtech what you were witnessing was the essence of credentalism! Cuz all he has is title and letters after his name which he's desperately jealous of cuz he knows it's based on a GAME which is way more abt _team play_ than facts or acquisition of knowledge! So his only test of other's ideas is opinion of his peers cuz deference to direct apprehension of reality is literally alien concept to him! Also I say that even though he's victim of the system he's also culprit through his willing ignorance and cowardice! So he's just like Typhoid Mary handing out his _disease_ of ignorance to all comers!

Tcmtech just so I'm not being a hypocrite, I admit that I've attended a great deal of school and so _earned_ advanced degrees but I never expect anyone to take my word for anything based on that! Also, I don't pay much attention to credentials when hiring (only to the extent of regulatory licensure requirements) otherwise hiring decisions are based entirely on applicants demonstrated well founded confidence in their knowledge - resting on credentials or resume is always an auto-fail!

And that, _kids_, is why the likes of ZipRecruiter is a scam!

 

HP I say is hilarious how you shame ppl for talking abt ghosts and now you're on this thread talking abt parasitology

HP Now I'm saying if you don't get it plz just read this post out loud

 

Tcmtech I say attitude of Prof is perfect example of ppl who are too cowardly to appreciate continuous nature of reality so they just hide behind paradigms (like inappropriate application of software control) that give illusion of _discrete_ universe Fwiw we have similar problems in abstract science with occasional IDIOTs who try to twist quantization into argument for a _grainy reality_ which is not what QM is abt at all! All the same as ppl who don't get the difference between equality and limit in transfinite math! So I say anyone who can't handle and comprehend analog design is not an EE! Just a programmer and probably a poor one at that!


Tcmtech what you were witnessing was the essence of credentalism! Cuz all he has is title and letters after his name which he's desperately jealous of cuz he knows it's based on a GAME which is way more abt _team play_ than facts or acquisition of knowledge! So his only test of other's ideas is opinion of his peers cuz deference to direct apprehension of reality is literally alien concept to him! Also I say that even though he's victim of the system he's also culprit through his willing ignorance and cowardice! So he's just like Typhoid Mary handing out his _disease_ of ignorance to all comers!

Tcmtech just so I'm not being a hypocrite, I admit that I've attended a great deal of school and so _earned_ advanced degrees but I never expect anyone to take my word for anything based on that! Also, I don't pay much attention to credentials when hiring (only to the extent of regulatory licensure requirements) otherwise hiring decisions are based entirely on applicants demonstrated well founded confidence in their knowledge - resting on credentials or resume is always an auto-fail!

And that, _kids_, is why the likes of ZipRecruiter is a scam!

I hadn't thought of it in the term of 'credentialism' before that exactly describes it and way too much of what I see in life. I even see it a lot here on the forums. Some people can't look past what their definitions of 'credentials' for something actually equates to regarding whatever it is has for real bonified working value and credibility in reality.

Too many put some piece of paper (or paper trail) and documentation behind someone or something over the reality what exactly can that person or thing do for the supposed value or cost its credentials implies it has.

On that basis I am a person of low definable credentials but high working value. I don't have crap for documentation to say I am worth much of anything these days but I do my best to make up for it by trying to continually stay above average in actual working knowledge and functional 'can actually do something' capacity in trade.

 

I've met credentialism before. One guy actually said to me, "I couldn't possibly buy anything that accurate without a college degree behind it."
I said, "You could twist the knob real hard and knock it out if calibration."

Then he hired a genuine BSEE to make a controller for his thermal stress test ovens and melted $3 million worth of equipment.

Doncha just love it when fools shoot themselves in the foot?

 

I totally agree with what you're saying! Also tnx for kind thoughts!

I had another kind thought: I don't need a professional peer for a social life. Neither do you. It's called, "compartmentalization".
I like to be around people that can make whole sentences and move when exigency exists, but they don't have to know electronics or thermodynamics to be fun or friends...or even spouses.

 

I had another kind thought: I don't need a professional peer for a social life. Neither do you. It's called, "compartmentalization".
I like to be around people that can make whole sentences and move when exigency exists, but they don't have to know electronics or thermodynamics to be fun or friends...or even spouses.

For all that there is something to be said for 'birds of a feather' - to wit: shared interests (and, hence, aptitudes)

Best regards
HP

 

For all that there is something to be said for 'birds of a feather' - to wit: shared interests (and, hence, aptitudes)

Best regards
HP

Good luck with that.
I'm afraid you're doomed if you're hoping to fulfill your life's dreams as the 21st century version of Pierre and Marie Curie.

 

Good luck with that.
I'm afraid you're doomed if you're hoping to fulfill your life's dreams as the 21st century version of Pierre and Marie Curie.

Life's dreams? Not me! -- Again I ask; what part of confirmed hermit is unclear?

As I see it -'Tis a case of Liberty starts at home!

Very best regards
HP

 

Liberty starts at home!

Liberty never started in my home when a wife arrived.

Oh...wait...that's what you were saying.
Sorry. I have difficulty keeping up with you.

I would love to spend a week with you, but I'm afraid I would be the dim bulb in the room.

 

I would love to spend a week with you, but I'm afraid I would be the dim bulb in the room.

--Emphasis added--

Now! now! - No need to identify with that under-powered Na HID mood -ahem- security lighting!

Very best regards
HP

 

A

Life's dreams? Not me! -- Again I ask; what part of confirmed hermit is unclear?

As I see it -'Tis a case of Liberty starts at home!

Very best regards
HP

Oh sure. Throw the 'Confirmed Hermit' title in my face. I've been working toward that for years.

Sorry. I have difficulty keeping up with you.

I would love to spend a week with you, but I'm afraid I would be the dim bulb in the room.

I'd love it! Being around people who can enlighten me in areas and aspects of all things technical and scientific to is not a problem for me.

In a way that's why I get so disappointed here when someone claims they know something that will prove me and others who think like me are wrong then instead of enlightening us with profound revelations of how wrong we are they do little more than exercise their squatters rights to becoming the official and proud owner of the title of village idiot and or communal fool.

 

I'd love it! Being around people who can enlighten me in areas and aspects of all things technical and scientific to is not a problem for me.

Me too.
I would suffer the shame of being the dumbest person in the room in exchange for watching people that spend half their time in thought processes I can't understand. Only by watching people with very different world views can I start learning what they know.