how the ee brain works...

[jancumps]

Do you have that too, when working on something,
that you don't think about your subject under design,
but that you are the subject under design?

Funny how the brain works. I sometimes catch myself in the midst of playing a comparator inside my own scull. Or a microcontroller register.
Go figure

[German_EE]

How does my mind work?

1) I can carry around in my head a multi-page schematic diagram yet forget that we need margarine.

2) Give me a movie name and I can probably name the principle actors and give you a summary of the plot but I hardly ever go to the movies.

3) Aspergers means that I can deliver a talk to a room full of radio hams on my chosen subject yet if a pretty woman comes up and says hello my knees turn to jelly.

4) I've worked on thirty floor elevator installations, bungee jumped in New Zealand and done a freefall parachute jump from 7000 metres but I have a really REALLY strong dislike of insects and creepy crawlies.

5) I don't have a smartphone because I just want to make and receive calls and I don't run MS Windows because Microsoft sell a really poor product.

And finally..........................................

6) When logging on to EEVBlog the first section I always go to is 'Beginners' because as an Engineer it's my duty to pass on my knowledge to those just starting out. Dave does the same but he's better at it than me.

Welcome to the mind of German_EE

[lukewproffitt]

I could program a microcontroller in OPCODE, but can't reliably tell you how old I am (27, well thats my answer for now anyway)

[Stonent]

I could program a microcontroller in OPCODE, but can't reliably tell you how old I am (27, well thats my answer for now anyway)

I have to ask my wife how old I am.  For some reason 2015 - 19xx is to hard for me.

[IconicPCB]

Nicely.

[bitseeker]

Constantly

[pickle9000]

Always looking to learn, and need not be electronics. Everything from cooking and welding to how to get the best shine on a woodworking project or mars exploration......

[ajb]

Always looking to learn, and need not be electronics. Everything from cooking and welding to how to get the best shine on a woodworking project or mars exploration......

It occurred to me recently that there's a corollary to nerd sniping that I think of as geek sniping.  Basically, instead of being helplessly drawn into abstract or logical puzzles, it's the phenomenon of being immediately fascinated by the most intricate details of a much more specific, concrete, and often mundane subject.  Probably both result from the same underlying psychological characteristics--particularly the inability to leave a newly discovered subject ungrokked--so naturally there's a lot of overlap between the groups who are susceptible to one or the other.  Even so, the manifested behaviors are distinctive between the two phenomena, largely as a result of the differences in subject matter that would indicate different cognitive approaches.  For instance, the quintessential resistor grid nerd-sniping problem indicates a strictly objective mathematical/analytical approach, whereas cooking, to use one of your examples, indicates an information-gathering and -synthesis approach that inescapably incorporates a high degree of subjective opinion.  See also: Kirk vs. Picard.

Anyway, just something that occurred to me after I realized I'd just spent an hour researching mechanical pencils.

[vk6zgo]

I could program a microcontroller in OPCODE, but can't reliably tell you how old I am (27, well thats my answer for now anyway)

You can't remember to close brackets,either.

[vk6zgo]

How does my mind work?

1) I can carry around in my head a multi-page schematic diagram yet forget that we need margarine.

2) Give me a movie name and I can probably name the principle actors and give you a summary of the plot but I hardly ever go to the movies.

3) Aspergers means that I can deliver a talk to a room full of radio hams on my chosen subject yet if a pretty woman comes up and says hello my knees turn to jelly.

4) I've worked on thirty floor elevator installations, bungee jumped in New Zealand and done a freefall parachute jump from 7000 metres but I have a really REALLY strong dislike of insects and creepy crawlies.

5) I don't have a smartphone because I just want to make and receive calls and I don't run MS Windows because Microsoft sell a really poor product.

And finally..........................................

6) When logging on to EEVBlog the first section I always go to is 'Beginners' because as an Engineer it's my duty to pass on my knowledge to those just starting out. Dave does the same but he's better at it than me.

Welcome to the mind of German_EE

I'm not an EE,so I go to "Beginners" to harass the noobs.
It's such a joy!

[pickle9000]

Always looking to learn, and need not be electronics. Everything from cooking and welding to how to get the best shine on a woodworking project or mars exploration......

It occurred to me recently that there's a corollary to nerd sniping that I think of as geek sniping.  Basically, instead of being helplessly drawn into abstract or logical puzzles, it's the phenomenon of being immediately fascinated by the most intricate details of a much more specific, concrete, and often mundane subject.  Probably both result from the same underlying psychological characteristics--particularly the inability to leave a newly discovered subject ungrokked--so naturally there's a lot of overlap between the groups who are susceptible to one or the other.  Even so, the manifested behaviors are distinctive between the two phenomena, largely as a result of the differences in subject matter that would indicate different cognitive approaches.  For instance, the quintessential resistor grid nerd-sniping problem indicates a strictly objective mathematical/analytical approach, whereas cooking, to use one of your examples, indicates an information-gathering and -synthesis approach that inescapably incorporates a high degree of subjective opinion.  See also: Kirk vs. Picard.

Anyway, just something that occurred to me after I realized I'd just spent an hour researching mechanical pencils.

Speaking of concrete, and yes that is how my mind works. You say a word and I go off and think of 5000 concrete related items. None of which relate to the conversation.

[miguelvp]

No one needs margarine

[pickle9000]

No one needs margarine

And now I want to make some toffee bars. Yes, I have a full pantry and lots of marg.

[briselec]

a) I can't resist sudoku puzzles.
b) I never cook. I have zero interest in the subject.

Apparently that makes me a nerd.

[AF6LJ]

No one needs margarine

No kidding that crap is two or three atoms away from plastic.

[AF6LJ]

I am not an EE but; I have redesigned a couple of transmitters, worked for one, and stayed at a Holiday Inn.

[uChip]

I once sat on an IEEE committee.  We were a group of about 20 nerds tasked with hammering out the technical details of a spec for a communications protocol over a four day meeting.  Somebody arrived on the first day with this new puzzle.  We'd never seen it before.  It was called a Rubic's Cube.  The next day everyone arrived with a copy of the puzzle.  No coordinated buy.  Not really even any discussion.  But participation was 100%.  The meetings tended to degenerate into silence and all you could hear was the squeak, squeak of people working their cubes.

Bonus points if you can correctly name the committee/spec.

[Galenbo]

I don't care much about my own birthdays, feel more like an actor in other people's game that day.
But when I turned 15.000 days old... that was something special.
Hey, not that really special, just a rounded number in an arbitrary base-10 numeral system...

[Leiothrix]

No kidding that crap is two or three atoms away from plastic.

And water is one atom away from rocket fuel.

Margarine is still terrible though, just not for that reason.

[AF6LJ]

No kidding that crap is two or three atoms away from plastic.

And water is one atom away from rocket fuel.

Margarine is still terrible though, just not for that reason.

It sure is.

[ivan747]

I could program a microcontroller in OPCODE, but can't reliably tell you how old I am (27, well thats my answer for now anyway)

Yuuup. I sometimes think it's 2014.

[ivan747]

No one needs margarine

No kidding that crap is two or three atoms away from plastic.

Thanks to you I'm switching to the aforementioned crap.

[vk6zgo]

I could program a microcontroller in OPCODE, but can't reliably tell you how old I am (27, well thats my answer for now anyway)

You can't remember to close brackets,either.

And I can't read postings-------for some reason,I expected to see the closing bracket after the "27"!