re: #31 GeneJockey

We have a winner! Not true of ALL engineers, by any means. But a lot of them.

I’ve got a PhD in engineering, so have a little bit of experience with the subject. You can approach engineering as an applied scientist, who takes the results of pure scientists and solves real-world problems with it. Or you can approach it as a mechanic, who learns to turn the right cranks to get an answer but doesn’t think too deeply about why it works.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a mechanic: surgeons are essentially elite mechanics. But it doesn’t give you a whole lot of tools to go outside your area of expertise, and everyone knows how amazingly confident yet frighteningly dangerous a surgeon is with an airplane or a financial portfolio.

Also, I’d assume that denialists with credentials like engineering degrees get a lot more publicity than denialists with cosmetology licenses, so there’s probably a selection effect that goes along with it. But I’ve met enough mechanic types with odd beliefs to know it’s not an isolated incident.