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Quote of the Day – Texas
Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may. – Sam Houston
I moved to Texas from Michigan in 1979 (along with about a quarter of the state) and never looked back. (I even wrote about the move on Ricochet, but cannot find the piece.) Texas has been home ever since.
Shara Fryer, a long-time fixture in Houston’s local news scene has an occasional podcast, My Heart of Texas, about “being Texan.” Last week, for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings she wanted to feature the role of the battleship Texas at D-Day. Discovering I had written a book about the battleship and was local, she asked me to appear on the show, which went live on Thursday. On it we talked about USS Texas and D-Day, the role the sea has played in Texas history and continues to play today, and . . . well . . . my career as an author and rocket scientist.
You can listen to the podcast at the link below.
Ready, set, go!
*Rocket Engineer,
you are more useful than a scientist.
“You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.” ― Davy Crockett
True, that.
When I graduated from college I had an engineering degree. A friend hired at the same time had a physics degree – a true science degree. I got paid 15% more right out the gate because I had an engineering degree and he had a science degree. You know what they say about market pricing.
Scientists tell engineers what can’t be done. Engineers do it.
Scientists ask you to take a room full of equipment that demonstrates that they can do the measurement they have been funded to do in space and expect you to get it into a 30Kg, 80 watt package, that can survive a ride to orbit, last at least 5 years with a reliability factor of 95%, meet the overly optimistic budget they had to market to headquarter to sell it, and figure out how to do it in a 3 year time horizon to meet some astronomical event.
Yes those omnipotent seers, Scientists…
Podcast downloaded. Mrs Tex and I both have engineering degrees from Syracuse – her in ME and mine in IE. She went off to fly jets and I was a USAF civil engineer which made me more of a logistics guy than an engineer. But the engineering approach to problems is superior IMHO. In my corporate career the stuff MBA’s would assert confidently without the benefit of logical thinking never ceased to amaze me.
All the scientists have to do is SNAP their fingers and a space-based power plant is ready for launching.
Meanwhile, there are days when I really miss living in Houston, even tho I mostly love living in New England. Ain’t no place like Texas. I still remember the way July smells in the country. I get nostalgic reading your antics @seawriter and @tex929rr.
I actually have both a BSNAME and an MBA. I got the MBA out of self-defense when they started having me manage people. I worked for too many engineers that had no clue about managing people and decided I wasn’t going to be That Guy.
It worked. Once I got the MBA I have never been in a management position.
MBAs are the way DEI infects STEM organizations.
An MBA is a useful tool, especially for technical people. Most technical people has as much knowledge about accounting, economics, managing people and logistics as business and liberal arts majors have about technical subjects. Anyone with an engineering baccalaureate would find it worthwhile – especially if their company pays for it (as mine did).
Ditto, MS in Engineering Management, never had to manage more than a few engineers at a time, all technical directions. Never acquiesced the requests to ascend the management ladder.
It’s only early June and already too hot to spend much time outside after 10am. By July, I’m not sure there’ll be much difference between hell and Texas.
Love the podcast- thanks for sharing!
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Here’s the June QOTD Signup Sheet, should anyone be inspired to share a quote.
Well,
Something about the availability of accordions…
I have one in my office.
Supposedly northern Texas – such as Amarillo, which is closer to Oklahoma than to Houston – is a lot better, although I’ve never been there to find out. I would think that places like Lubbock and even Dallas would be much nicer than Houston etc with the gulf humidity… And of course the hurricanes…
Did someone say General Sheridan?
I don’t know, man. Lots of accordions in tejano music …
:) You can always tell a Texan …… ya just cant tell him much
It has been said that all either of these places needs is more water and a better class of people, for myself, all Texas would need is more water – but at the moment in my corner I am ready for some dry!
I resemble that remark!
MBA’s grew in popularity at the same time that we were being told that we needed to develop a “service” economy and shipped manufacturing overseas. Coincidence?
I was never impressed by any of the MBA people I had to work with.
Winter is dandy in Houston. Air condition makes lots of places habitable.
That was great, Mark. Just finished listening. I now have your website bookmarked.
The container shipping story is deserving of its own conversation.
I like to think scientists talk about what can be done, and engineers find a way to actually do it . . .
BS in Physics and MS in Nuclear Engineering here. Best of both worlds . . .