Ode to engineers

I mentioned in an earlier post that I recently finished reading Ken Whyte’s Hoover. It’s a great book that reframes Herbert Hoover as an extremely competent and accomplished man, even before running for and winning the presidency.

One early passage that stuck out to me was Hoover’s description and celebration of the engineer, which he called the “new intellectual type”.

“To the engineer falls the work of creating from the dry bones of scientific fact the living body of industry. It is he whose intellect and direction bring to the world the comforts and necessities of daily need. Unlike the doctor, his is not the constant struggle to save the weak. Unlike the soldier, destruction is not his prime function. Unlike the lawyer, quarrels are not his daily bread. Engineering is the profession of creation and construction, of stimulation of human effort and accomplishment.”