Atendendo a algumas respostas apreciativas e inúmeras ignorativas, aqui está......

20 dezembro 2009

Practical engineers

"The practical engineer, who judges himself quite immune to the need of theoretical novelties, is usually the slave of a defunct mathematician."

6 comentários:

Anônimo disse...

i guess this applies also to practical economists.

but the question is:
theoretical engineers and economists, who judge themselves so... smart, are usually slaves of what?

abs
sgold

Felipe Pait disse...

Practical engineers, perhaps? About economists, I don't know - have to ask Maynard Keynes.

Anônimo disse...

psychiatrists, maybe...

hugs
sgold

Felipe Pait disse...

I know! Theoretical engineers are slaves of the technicians who put together their computers and equipment and pens and pencils! And theoretical economists are the slaves of a shopkeeper!

Germano Machado disse...

Concerning the economists,I would say that the relation between them and the shopkeepers is not precisely slavery, but a somewhat theological one, based on worships, beliefs, blind faith and so forth.
Check out the following:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99mar/marketgod.htm

Felipe Pait disse...

Maybe I was thinking more about the fact that theoreticians earn their bread not with their own sweat, but with taxes paid on baked goods :-)