Brilliant engineers frequently aren't that smart outside their narrow domain of expertise. They're also very frequently politically conservative, religious (so

Brilliant engineers frequently aren't that smart outside their narrow domain of expertise. They're also very frequently politically conservative, religious (so they believe unscientific things), and have been shown in studies to have traits making them more likely to become terrorists (they exhibit extreme black-and-white thinking). It doesn't surprise me at all that your "brilliant engineers" think climate change is a hoax and have bought waterfront property in a flood zone. BTW, I'm an engineer (EE) myself, so I see this stuff in my colleagues (maybe not the terrorism stuff so much, but definitely the religion and conservatism).