Ten Things Engineers Cannot Live Without, and Why

A list, by Mark Miner

10)  Sweater.  Because offices are inordinately cold.  Why must we have numb hands?

9)  Calipers.  They afford a lot of fun measuring your tape dispenser, phone handset, monitor, mouse, and occasionally some useful parts.

8)  MS Paint.  Because they (or you) were too cheap to get a real graphics program, and you have a presentation in an hour.

7)  5 of each writing implement.  Because you will lose at least 3 of them.

6)  Whiteboard.  A picture's worth a thousand words, and you can doodle on it.

5)  Set of files.  Because you screwed up the design, but now you're out of money and that hole has to line up.  Get ready for sore hands.

4)  Hammer.  Because you REALLY screwed up this time.  Seriously, don't you have calipers?

3)  Lunch.  Do you need to ask?

2)  Other engineers.  Because you have to sneer at the idiocy of SOMEBODY.

1)  Coffee & mug.  Almost doesn't deserve to be articulated, it's so fundamental.  On the other hand, you'd never do work before noon without it.



PS- Not sure why I degenerated to list making.  I'll just say it's a low-brainspace way of easing back into the blog.  We'll see.