Back to Basics: What is The Knack?
Do You Have “The Knack?” Understanding the Engineer’s Mindset
What is The Knack?
Ask almost any engineer about “The Knack,” and you’ll get a knowing smile. The term was made famous by a Dilbert cartoon, where it was described as intuition about all things electrical and mechanical… and… utter social ineptitude.
OK, I’ll admit that engineers can come off as a bit strange. Some even as very strange. But what is “The Knack?”
What is it that drives an engineer?
What makes an engineer?
If I had to distill it down to one word, it would be curiosity. Engineers want to know the details:
What does it do?
How does it do it?
More importantly, how could I make it better?
The “How can I make it better?” part of the equation is a double-edged sword. This mindset of constant improvement drives much of the technology we have today.
Take mobile phones, for example. I remember early mobile telephones—bulky radio systems mounted in the trunk of a car, connected to a handset used by the driver. They were almost always busy, had no privacy, coverage was spotty, and roaming (using your phone outside your normal service area) was a nightmare.
Now, mobile phones fit in your pocket, work almost everywhere and do far more than just make calls. Texting, weather updates, video calls—these are all thanks to engineers constantly asking, how can I improve it?.
If you want to learn more about today’s cellular networks, you can read more HERE.
The Most Common Engineering Pitfall
But that same drive for improvement can have a downside. Voltaire wisely observed, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” Sometimes, engineers don’t know when to quit.
There’s an old joke in the tech business:
“There comes a time when you must shoot the engineers and put the product into production.”
I’ve seen more than one project fall victim to feature creep—where so many improvements are added that the project never makes it past the prototype stage.
A good engineer knows when to quit. At some point, the best idea is to finish what you have and save the rest for a future release. Whether it’s software or hardware, there comes a time to move to production. Otherwise, those bullets can be pretty painful!
Do You Have “The Knack?”
Not everyone has The Knack. Do you?
Take our quiz and find out!
And if you need a little engineering expertise, we’ve got you covered.