This comment x 1000. (Some) Engineers think they have it all figured out. And they do...because someone figured it out all for them, and they get to work with

This comment x 1000. (Some) Engineers think they have it all figured out. And they do...because someone figured it out all for them, and they get to work with the benefit of that knowledge. This is a polemical statement, I'm closer to an engineer than a scientists and I really like having a solid model to work from. It took me a long time to understand how useful approximations are to solving hard problems. Because I didn't want to know the approximations, I wanted a perfect model. (Oddly, I came to understand the power of approximations in terms of electronics. Electronics are filled with rules of thumb that help you figure out how your circuit works and help to elucidate the behaviors that are important to you. But it took me awhile to get over myself and use them. It was honestly a huge road block to progress in learning.) My own take-aways: getting knowledge (de novo, ex nihilo) and applying knowledge are two very important things, but are separate skills. Ideally you'd like to have both. Secondly science is difficult because you are trying to figure out true things in the face of glaring uncertainties.