On Apr 24, 2012, at 11:51 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > Large organizations abhor non-uniformity; thinking and speaking in > cliches precludes the unpredictability introduced by an individual's > emotions, heritage, learning, cultures and all of that unpredictable > stuff.
Having spent twenty-five years or so in and around engineering organizations of computer and software companies from small to large, I tend to have the Dilbert world view, in which engineers communicate in no-nonsense language and judge success by a very objective criterion: does the thing work, or doesn't it?, while other people in the organization, such as management, and Heaven Preserve Us, marketing, don't have such objective criteria and operate in a world of bullshit (where they "think outside the box" and "leverage synergy", etc). I believe that there is a lot of truth to the Dilbertian world view (and hey, he said, putting on his marketing hat, read my novel Acts of the Apostles for an in-depth exploration of it!) I realize that one of the reasons I think Dilbert is essentially correct about the discipline of engineering being inherently less susceptible to bullshit than, say, those of marketing or management is that I'm from engineering and Dilbert's worldview is flattering to me. People tend to believe things that make them feel good about themselves, and I'm no exception. But I really do believe that engineers and scientists, even those in large organizations, have more finely-tuned bullshit-detectors than people in other corporate walks of life. jrs
