If I could elaborate a little bit more on this: it doesn't surprise me that someone with a poor memory can also be an excellent engineer. The two traits go together. With me, for instance, it's because I have a hard time remembering, that I have become an excellent problem solver. When I look at code that I've written, just a few months earlier; it's like looking at new code which I've never seen before. I then have to reconstruct the solutions to the problems -- again -- from scratch. My critical thinking, reason, and logic, have to be better than average in order to compensate for an inability to remember detail. So the weakness in memory is offset by an increase in the ability to find solutions and reconstruct that which I've forgotten.
Craig On 05/23/2013 09:04 AM, Craig wrote: > On 05/22/2013 11:01 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote: >> It is strange how a detailed-oriented engineer sometimes throws >> discipline aside and blunders ahead like an amateur. I am a big fan of >> structured programming with meaningful variable names, but I once >> dashed off a quick and dirty program for Chris Tinsley, which he >> gleefully pointed out was full of spaghetti code and variables such as >> "A" and "T1." He got a good laugh out of it. >> >> - Jed >> > It's not discipline that's thrown asunder. It's memory. I have an > excellent ability to figure things out. I can design, write, and debug > complex code; but I have a hard time remembering facts. It actually > takes time for me to remember something. I have to put my mind to work > on it, and then the memories start to return. So when someone asks a > question for which I have a shady memory, I have to spend time trying to > get the information to them. It then becomes easy to throw back an > answer before I've ascertained the validity of the answer. This aspect > of Rossi reminds me a lot -- of me. It takes a bit of effort to be precise. > > Craig >
