| General > General Technical Chat |
| Design engineers: Can you shut off your brain during non-work hours? |
| << < (11/17) > >> |
| MMMarco:
--- Quote from: DiTBho on June 15, 2023, 12:29:49 pm --- --- Quote from: EEVblog on June 13, 2023, 05:56:08 am ---Nope. I always see the engineerng angle in everything I see and do. --- End quote --- yesterday I was offered a NOS Campy BioTherm water bottle for cheap, and ... instead of looking at its cool 90s design which perfectly fits my titanium 90s road bicycle frame, I immediately took my smartphone to find a "datasheet" ... The man looked at me, without saying a word but he had the face of wondering "hey buddy, do you seriously need to look at the datasheet to buy my water bottle?" - while, in my corner, I just didn't even think that it could make him embarrassed. Instead, in my head, I was just wondering why it was so light with the suspect that didn't use steel and glass, and when I found out it was completely plastic, I started thinking that thermal insulation with polyurethane foam is less efficient than a glass vessel with double walls where the space between the walls is a vacuum which reduces the heat loss due to conduction and convection. As a result, the guy changed his mind about the possible discount and even asked me for more money. Moral of the story is, reasoning like an engineer with a trader can be counterproductive :-// --- End quote --- You should've asked him instead of pulling out your smartphone. You most likely gave an impression of distrust and got "punished" by it so to speak. |
| tszaboo:
--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on June 14, 2023, 02:19:52 pm --- --- Quote from: hans on June 14, 2023, 01:42:50 pm ---Personally I love to play simulator based games, RPGs, team-PvP or PvE, or creative-style games (Tycoons, builders, etc.). The latter can be dangerous though, as there are many games that speak for the engineering analytical mind. --- End quote --- Oh yes, I've so far avoided the likes of Minecraft, Terraria, Factorio, etc. I have too strong a suspicion I would spend altogether far too much time in them! :-DD Also for those highly technical / code golfing / nerd sniping types, there's the genre of "Zach-likes" which involve programming [virtual] computers directly, or creating clever mechanisms or such. Also kinda along that line but also related to older puzzle-sim games like The Incredible Machine (ah, I remember playing that on a friend's Macintosh..!), Opus Magnum comes to mind. Or if you want a just damned clever reimagining of ye olde Sokoban block pushing game: try Baba Is You. Not so much a game to unwind, it's very clever at times; this is no accident as the credits is a whos-who of top puzzle crafters today, pretty much all of them had a hand in one level or another. But yeah, indeed not so much for physical health, but the mental health value of gaming is not at all to be neglected! Tim --- End quote --- All these are great. I've sank 420 hours into Kerbal space program this year, learned orbital mechanics. 2 years ago I was playing this game called Bitburner, which is a javascript programming game, similar to Uplink, with some idle game mechanics. According to Steam I ran that for 1200 hours, though probably more than half of that I was AFK. I went in not knowing any javascript (and kinda loathing the language). And earlier, Minecraft with mods can get pretty crazy. There are mods for automation, you can build nuclear reactors with temperature control, automatic processing machines with electricity network and automatic sorting and mining. There was a programmable "turle" that you could program in LUA which you could use to make world devouring Neumann machines. I know the game looks silly, but it has a lot of depth with mods. |
| DiTBho:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on June 15, 2023, 06:57:56 pm ---Pulling up your cellphone instantly doomed you to failure, I'm afraid. :( --- End quote --- After the previous failure, as a compromise, I told the trader "I specifically want one of these" - showing a couple of pic of the Bianchi Champion bicycle water bottle - "find it, and make your price" That's what he is very happy to hear - the product name/product and vendor id, instead of the product specs - a pic of the product, instead of the product datasheet - have a generous margin of gain to make his price (maybe that's what widens his smile the most) The Bianchi Champion bicycle water bottle is less aesthetically cool than the Campagnolo BioTherm because it is not aerodynamic, and it's also more fragile because it is made of glass and steel, almost like a common camping thermos, so if it falls it breaks up, also 100g heavier, but better for me because it's able to supply fresh water for many more hours! Problem solved :D |
| Siwastaja:
Can't shut down, and don't want either. It's a valuable skill, not a bad thing. You are concentrated on the project. If you are not getting stressed about it, there's no problem and nothing to fix. Changing yourself into someone else, who is able to let go of work, could be more stressful. Your paycheck should really reflect that skill, though. Working as freelancer consultant/designer could work for you better; else, if you self-report working hours, you should be accounting for these mental work hours, too. If bureaucracy prevents this, then circumvent the system, misreport the status so that you are actually further ahead than you tell anyone, finish your work early and work on your own projects or whatever you want for the rest of the time. |
| Siwastaja:
--- Quote from: Bud on June 13, 2023, 04:25:32 am ---Never take work home. Learn to draw the line. At my current workplace we have official "Right to disconnect" policy. It explicitly disallows work related calls and emails after hours unless you are in an overtime paid support role. --- End quote --- Disconnecting from the workplace, workplace rules, communication, emails, calls etc. is extremely important, I agree with that. But do let your mind work on the technical details. When it happens outside office hours, your mind is free to explore all the ideas, and this reduces stress and ultimately benefits the workplace, too. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |