Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Engineers as learners I've been thinking again about an engineer's personality or way of looking at things. Wonder if you've ever thought about that. I've thought that one reason I'm an engineering school dropout, even though I've always been very technical, is that I'm not a black and white kind of person. I love ambiguity and shades of gray. When I went for a liberal arts degree in international studies and philosophy, I kept taking math and science classes as well. My advisor was baffled. I've been told that engineers tend to look at things a little more in terms of black and white. I've also seen far too many engineers with good ideas not be able to sell them to "clueless managers and assorted beancounters" because they thought the idea was obvious. (I've been there, too.) On the other hand, I think there's something about engineers who, when their interest is captivated, will study something thoroughly. I was thinking about this when a young woman came to my door this afternoon selling this miracle cleaning stuff. When I went into sales, I took a bunch of sales courses and learned things like probing for needs and meeting objections. I've also studied various selling techniques. If you sold the stuff I've sold in my life, you needed that training ";-}" Well, I knew the techniques she was using, but she was great. She met every objection that I threw out. If I diverted her attention, she was pleasant but went right back to the topic. I know grown men, professional sales people making a good income who can't overcome objections like she did. They just collapse. If I were hiring, I'd hire her. I bet she can be trained for a lot of different products, and with her personality and persistence, she'll do well. So my wife comes home and says, "Where did you get that cleaning stuff?" Followed up by, "Was she cute?" I guess she knows me. 8:18:06 PM    comment []

Programming Training Webcast I may have stirred the OMAC pot enough to get some news. Andy McDonald points to this as evidence that there is still some effort to work with Ken Ryan and to the benefits of being part of ISA. The this is a Webcast training session on programming in IEC 61131-3 with Ken Ryan and Bill Lydon who has taken the reins as North American director of PLCopen, the organization that promotes the programming standard. The Webcast is on Thursday Sept. 7 at 10 am and lasts 90 minutes. You need to register a site and the cost is $195 ISA members and $225 for non-members. The site can have any number of participants. 7:37:06 PM    comment []