General Engineering Introduction/Golden Ignorance/quiz

1 Why is knowing nothing an asset to Engineering sometimes?

	Can practice being crazy
	Existing assumptions and prejudices of those that know have no opportunity to seduce
	Other respected engineers have not been successful .. they may be in a box they can not climb out of.
	Innocence of prior work sometimes enables walking down a path different than past attempts that ended in failure.

2 When should an Engineer read prior work documentation?

	When the product (made object) is successful and the task is incremental improvement.
	As long as hints of multiple, possible solutions appear as the Engineer reads about failures
	As long as the engineer can see flaws in previous solutions or flaws in the test protocol of those solutions.
	Only when reverse engineering is not faster or not possible.

3 How does an Engineer value/protect/respectfully talk about their ignorance?

	by staying ignorant
	by having preferences for one type of engineering or another
	by practicing creativity in another area ... for example creating unusual tastes in food by mixing spices together in different ways.
	by knowing what they don't know.

4 What are your choices, if you are asked to design a fast food machine to cook over easy eggs?

	I am an idiot, I should already know how to cook an over easy egg.
	I have nothing to offer these people, let me find something else to do.
	Find a tutorial or something similar and teach myself.
	I can become an engineer. If I were to engineer (design) how to cook an over easy egg, I would ____________.

5 You don't know how to cook an over easy egg and neither does anyone else. What are you going to do?

	Nobody can teach me, can not find anything on the internet, must not be possible. Too hard. Quit.
	I can become an engineer. If I were to engineer (design) how to cook an over easy egg, I would _______________.

6 Who determines an Engineer's Starting Point?

	project managers
	clients, people with the money
	the engineer
	the technologists

7 How does an Engineer student practice picking Starting Points?

	guess and hope
	converse with others about it
	practice when doing homework
	bounce between skimming, reading ahead in text books and teasing detail out of spaces between words

8 Which of these statements about the uniqueness of starting points is most true?

	unique to the individual engineer
	unique to the company, tools, materials
	depends upon past failure points in the design process
	a consensus will emerge in a team when the correct starting point is found

9 Police officers suspect guilt or innocence of a person very rapidly. They feel this in their gut. What does an engineer feel in his/her gut?

	ignorance
	confusion
	starting points
	failure

10 An engineer is expected to know everything, yet this is humanly impossible. When asked a question the engineer doesn't know, the best thing to do when in front of non-engineers/techs/experts is:

	pause, think like an engineer, design a solution, review the possibilities, make up an answer and be willing to be corrected on the spot with a flattering apology like "wow, you know more than I do."
	Say "I've forgotten, let me get back to you on that." Then get depressed, go to the library, research on the internet, don't sleep, become and expert over night.
	Say "I am not familiar with that detail, but I will be shortly."
	Say "I am not an expert, but here is what I think."
	Find a starting point, and present it as the answer.

11 Starting points are:

	defined by the made objects for reverse engineering
	found in the past to enable reverse engineering
	found in past documentation to enable forward engineering
	created with the vision of something totally new

12 The Reverse Engineering goal at a minimum is:

	incrementally improving on past success
	figuring out design (function) from the object (form) itself rather than documentation about the object
	provide scaffolding for forward engineering
	creating something totally new

13 Reverse Engineering replaces:

	finding starting points
	searching the internet
	forward engineering
	fixing things

14 The number of starting points is increasing:

	in number for the same technology
	because the human species's body of knowledge is increasing
	because we all spell differently
	because the youtube generation has a bad attitude

15 Engineering students ideally want starting points determined by:

	themselves, depending upon what they want to learn
	teacher, depending upon what they want to cover
	textbook, depending which one has been assigned
	themselves, depending upon the project they are attempting at the moment
	youtube and internet, depending upon what can be found