More Proof

I just sat through a meeting with some fellow engineers where much time was spent on "how people use products."

Basically we were just discussing how the everyman (wasn't this the term that got Ford in trouble with the Edsel?) chooses and uses various electronic gadgets in the home. What I discovered during the course of the meeting was just further proof that engineers exist in a world all their own.

For example, many engineers can't be bothered to tuck in their shirts or take a bath with any regularity, but they will spend countless hours choosing what quality of cable should run from their DVD players to their TVs. Who else cares?

Some engineers consider themselves "just like any other user" of electronics, but does anyone else actually care about the quality with which the chip resistors are soldered to the main board of their TV?

Has the phrase "fieldtrip to Fry's" been uttered in any other boardroom?

Do people in other professions drink their beverages, hot, cold, caffeinated or otherwise, in nothing less than two liter quantities?

Are most people able to reference their computers by their location in the home (i.e. the computer in the kitchen, the computer in the office, the computer next to the toilet)?

When asked by the sales guy if they require help, do most people threaten violence? Engineers would sooner steal electronics than be assisted in buying them.

I'm continually awed by engineers. There's geeky, but this is a whole new level. I'm confident that if we truly want to design products for "the everyman," engineers should probably not be able to use them at all. Or at least not without some major irritation.