Re: Do you equate engineers and programmers?

[Shelley Larock <larock -at- TYCHO -dot- ARH -dot- CDC -dot- COM>]

Karla said the following:

> To further this end, they like to develop languages (perhaps even writing
> styles?) of their own. It's like having a secret code. This increases the
> chances that their power will be maintained, because others cannot easily
> understand what they're saying or writing.

I say she's right.  Although I don't have any experience with people
in the medical profession on this one, I DO know a lot of engineering
students.  I can fully relate to the suggestion that engineers have
their own "secret language".  When I was a freshman at college, I
had a really hard time understanding what the older students were
talking about.

I guess it's time for a quick story of my own.  I went to one of my
boyfriend's intramural hockey games.  One of the players got penalized
for high-sticking, and of course there was a ruckus about it.  Some
of the people were shouting, "Maybe the ref needs to get a refresher
course in how to calculate the area under a curve.  Didn't he ever
study moments and derivatives?  No, he must be an English major!"
What????  I thought I should've probably switched my major right
then.  I asked a couple of people what the guy meant by that and
they kind of gave me a demeaning look like, "You don't know what
that means?  What an idiot."

A couple years later I was at another game and the same type of
comments were going around, and I found myself laughing at them
(this, of course, after several terms of calculus).  Whenever
I would go to my home town and see people I went to high school
with, I had to be careful with the lanuage I used.  If I talked
to them how I talk to people up at school, they would never
understand me.  I guess that's when I first realized that there
is a BIG difference between engineers and the rest of the world.

It really is kind of like a secret club, but I guess I've paid
my dues.

Shelly
larock -at- tycho -dot- arh -dot- cdc -dot- com