what happens when three year old "snowflakes" start to design things

[Botus]

 

[Botus]

 

[brandwooddixon]

Woah - so much for electric vehicle simplicity that cooling system looks horrendous!

 

[Botus]

quite incredible isn't it

 

[LostKiwi]

Why snowflakes?

 

[Taffy7hfa]

As species we are prone to amnesia, things learnt by previous generations of designers are often forgotten by next generations as they are focusing on different "new" critical problems , so potential issues that would have simply been designed out by an earlier designer will sometimes re-surface. The Boeing 737 max saga is a good example of this.

 

[Blobcat]

As species we are prone to amnesia, things learnt by previous generations of designers are often forgotten by next generations as they are focusing on different "new" critical problems , so potential issues that would have simply been designed out by an earlier designer will sometimes re-surface. The Boeing 737 max saga is a good example of this.

 

[Botus]

Why snowflakes?

generation naming thing - last normal one was generation x, been sliding off a precipice ever since

you can't debate, explain, or show a snowflake how the world works or how to do anything as they are too delicate to cope….. I see even wiki can't bring themselves to use the real name !!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation

 

[Tony Dyson]

View attachment 68981

An abundance of cheap oil and the lobbying powers of big business.

 

[rorywquin]

As species we are prone to amnesia, things learnt by previous generations of designers are often forgotten by next generations as they are focusing on different "new" critical problems , so potential issues that would have simply been designed out by an earlier designer will sometimes re-surface. The Boeing 737 max saga is a good example of this.

Also a lot of wanting to use the latest and greatest (even if not needed).

I worked on a project (brewery) where the (young) engineers were specifing temprature monitoring gear that was 3x over budget. When I asked why, "it is the latest and can give us a reading every 1/10 of second”. I asked the brewmaster how often they needed to check the temperature in the fermentation vessels.........”every few hours or so.....”. Orders for fancy monitors were cancelled.

Sometimes it is technology for the sake of technology to solve a problem that does not exist.

 

[star]

Don’t mention timing chains, mercs 102 engine first came with a single chain which failed prematurely, subsequently redesigned as a duplex, problem solved.
jump forward to today and single chains have reappeared along with premature wear problems.

 

[Botus]

nice a recall on all taycan's as the software just has a moment...

A glitch in the software communications between the Taycan’s powertrain controller and the power electronics causes the car to bring up a dashboard warning urging the driver to find a safe place to stop and it dies 90 seconds later

and in a brilliant bit of snowflake incompetence they PROUDLY announce

project leader for drivetrain, Klaus Rechberger, told Auto Express that there are no defined parameters that force the issue to occur. “It’s entirely sporadic,” he said. “We first identified the problem in our own testing, and we have had intensive further tests with multiple sensors on vehicles to investigate the issue. There is no set of circumstances that automatically replicates the situation.”

so we have NO IDEA WHY - which gives ultimate confidence they really found and fixed the fault then ? - its lucky they aren't on public roads endangering other road users.... Ooops !!!

 

[rorywquin]

generation naming thing - last normal one was generation x, been sliding off a precipice ever since

you can't debate, explain, or show a snowflake how the world works or how to do anything as they are too delicate to cope….. I see even wiki can't bring themselves to use the real name !!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation

What I find most interesting is that they are unable to take responsibility for their own actions. It is always someone else’s fault.

Back on topic.....

I worked in the engineering industry all my life.

When I started working, engineers still used pencils, papers and slide rules / calculators to do their work (an engineer was a guy with 4 years of university education). Designers worked on drawing boards and understood what they were doing.

When I retired, all engineering calculations were done of computers with CAD doing much of the thinking and many were not real engineers.

There is a programme for everything these days and the users have become computer operators rather than design engineers just punching in numbers.

Younger people seem to have lost a bit of understanding / intuition along the way and cannot spot something “that does not look right” because we are jumping from raw data to a finished product without doing & understanding any of the stuff inbetween.

 

[KennyN]

Younger people seem to have lost a bit of understanding / intuition along the way and cannot spot something “that does not look right”

When i worked in RR we used to work the shutdown during the summer holidays , this is when we had undergraduates in from the Universities who would come in for some work experience.

These students were third year mechanical engineering graduates who could not drill + tap a hole , attempt to arc weld , use a lathe / milling / grinding machine which i found utterly astounding for someone who wants to get into the engineering trade. Over the last few years when we have been interviewing for engineering techs and the standard of the people we get applying just astounds me as to their lack of knowledge about basic eng skills.

There should be some form of bench trade test for applicants - strip a small gearbox / make a shaft / cut a keyway / rebuild gearbox , then we can talk about employment. If you can interrogate a PLC as a faultfinding tool and add a few lines of code for a modification then all the better.

K

 

[Botus]

I have been saying for 3 years - any shop floor recruitment where there's any form of (even quite basic) "machine minder type roles" - when hiring we should ask them to repair a puncture on a bicycle with deraieur gearset, invert safely, disconnect rear brakes, remove the back wheel, find the obvious bright yellow drawing pin, check it all out, fit a new tube, pump it up, rebuild etc.

that way we can see manual handling
basic spanner competence
a bit of common sense and safety etc.
(all we need is a bike, a 15mm spanner 3 tyre levers and a new tube).

If they can't do that safely and well by 21 years old they will NEVER have that skill... but we employ some kid who presents well and says they'll only be happy when CEO by 26th birthday and richer than Bill Gates by 30.

...and then they wonder why customers can't buy the products, and the old duffer who was better than 20 of these snowflakes, walks out with his head in his hands 10 years before we can afford to let him go

 

[rorywquin]

................. but we employ some kid who presents well and says they'll only be happy when CEO by 26th birthday and richer than Bill Gates by 30.

......

Seems that is what they are taught...how to get a job, rather than how to do the job.

 

[Blobcat]

When i worked in RR we used to work the shutdown during the summer holidays , this is when we had undergraduates in from the Universities who would come in for some work experience.

These students were third year mechanical engineering graduates who could not drill + tap a hole , attempt to arc weld , use a lathe / milling / grinding machine which i found utterly astounding for someone who wants to get into the engineering trade. Over the last few years when we have been interviewing for engineering techs and the standard of the people we get applying just astounds me as to their lack of knowledge about basic eng skills.

There should be some form of bench trade test for applicants - strip a small gearbox / make a shaft / cut a keyway / rebuild gearbox , then we can talk about employment. If you can interrogate a PLC as a faultfinding tool and add a few lines of code for a modification then all the better.

K

I had to put modern apprentices through hand tool courses as they couldn’t use a screwdriver, never mind about a hacksaw or soldering iron…

Surgeons are finding similar, trainees have very little fine motor skills as they’ve not learned how to sew as a child.

 

[Craiglxviii]

I bet they’re all devils with swiping up and down or clicking with a mouse though!

 

[Blobcat]

I bet they’re all devils at swiping right though!

Fixed that for you…

 

[BassMerc]

And have you seen how awkwardly they hold a pen/biro?

BTW, one of my basic skills as a youngster was to build a cycle wheel out of a hub, a rim and a handful of spokes. Anyone?