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This is a book for all engineers (and many scientists) who havbe ever had a crisis of faith in their work. It's a reminder, if one is needed, that engineering is human, humane work, and profoundly fulfilling in itself.Florman gets off to a slow start, though. The first third of the book is apologetic, acknowledging the many social and environmental ills in which engineers have taken part. "Forgive us," he seems to say, "for not being better than the masters who command our work and the clients who demand it." The next third of the book takes on a shrill tone, an answer to the neo-Luddites of the 1960s and 1970s. Florman spends time answering their anti-technological absurdities and self-important elitism. Only in the last third of the book does Florman make the central point of this book.Engineers, as a stereotype, seem boring, but perhaps that's becuase we lack so many of the stereotypical failings of other professions - avarice, personal arrogance, or violence. Engineering is no less creative than any of the "creative" arts, and is a profound expression of all that sets us apart from animals. It's part of the tradition of Homer and the Old Testament, where the ability to create was god-given, and the tradition of Chartres, where engineering skill was an offering to God. Florman notes that putting one's skills to the service of human needs is a living expression of the communal sense. I felt that myself when I acquired a breast cancer microarray dataset in the course of my work. It was the realization that those blank case numbers were real women, some now dead, and that I had a duty towards them (or their memories), their futures, and the futures of others. But most of all, Florman reminds us that engineering is fun. It answers personal, social, and even spiritual needs in ways that outsiders may never understand. I assure you, the greatest awareness of the world and its glories comes from direct involvement with it, and an engineer's life is about involvement with the physical world.Issues have changed since Florman wrote this in 1976; it sometimes answers questions that aren't commonly asked any more. Still, it's the finest statement I know of what there is about engineering that makes a practitioner proud, even happy, to be a part of it.//wiredweird
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Dan
So it IS OK to indulge in engineering pursuits.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 5, 2013
