Trainguy’s question is really a very good question, and I’ve often wondered the same thing as I watch the back and forth here during the work day. As is my case, some of us here are retired or semi-retired and trying to pass on some of our experience and knowledge to the younger engineers and a whole bunch of posters who are pretending to past themselves off as engineers, seemingly embarrassed to admit their level of experience so we knew at what level to start responding to an OP. I have read a bunch of B.S. rationalizing above about people’s time spent here, on the clock. I gotta say that if I were paying you 25 - $50/hr. I’d be pissed if I caught you spending much time here on my time, given much of what I’ve seen here. At that rate you better be productive, not just fartin around on the internet. Some significant percentage of the questions here are questions about things you should have learned in the first few years of collage, basic strength of materials and basic structural concepts. I would want you coming to me with your questions so I actually knew the state of your progress and actual knowledge. I don’t want you pretending to know something that you got from a third party, who may or may not know what he’s talking about, and has no real interest in your or our well being, just to hide your own ignorance, all based on a half-assed question. I want you to point at the plan or the detail and try to explain what you need so I know how to help you arrive at the right answer. And, I don’t mean to imply that I have all the answers, but I might point you in the right direction and suggest where to look. If you want to be a real engineer, there is some learin involved, and some of that is on your own time, at your rates, and some of that is at my expense for your and our betterment. These forums are good and many times informative and helpful, but they do not take the place of going back to your text books, assuming you had the foresight to save them for reference.
Things have really changed in the working world, I can’t say I never looked at a text book during working hours or actually had to read the code in the office to know what direction to go. But, when a new code came out, I read it and learned it on my own time, not during working hours. With few exceptions, when I ran into a problem I couldn’t solve, I went to the boss for help (mentoring, etc.), or went on to something else, and then studied that night so I could solve the problem the next morning, and I never gave this situation another thought, except to think I really should have known how to handle that problem, that’s what I’m getting paid for. You guys have many more diversions these days that you think must be attended to instantaneously or the world will stop turning, not on my time, please. And, you have many newer means of gathering information some of that good, much of that info. overload, and time wasting info. crap.
The guys who are on their own can spend 23hrs. a day here, it’s their nickle, but you guys who are being paid by the company better use your time here very judiciously and carefully, you are not getting paid to socialize on the internet, on a forum. And, if you don’t know the answer to the problem, you better figure it out on your own time, with my help, that’s what I hired you to know, and you assured me you did know most of that stuff.
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