As a general rule, engineers tend to be a calculated, conservative bunch. They approach problems as logically as possible to weigh the most desirable outcome (exceptions always apply), but that doesn’t mean that engineers are without concern or worry.
Product Design & Development recently asked engineers about their day-to-day woes and delved deep into the psyche of its readers — though some readers did stay more towards the surface with their replies.
This infograph categorizes the most pertinent concerns of engineers, and displays them to symbolize their weight (as determined by the open-ended responses) and where they sit in the realm of concerns (nightmare, dream, practical, abstract).
We asked engineers: As an engineer, what keeps you up at night? This is what they said.
Some notable additions include:
“None. I prefer to leave works at work.”
“The noise from the neighbor's dogs & the moron down the street w/ no mufflers on his Harley-Davidson!”
“Bacon cheeseburgers”
“Worry that design mistakes will kill someone.”
“Why we seem to have lost common sense on what is a good product and what isn't”
“Thinking about how things work, why they work the way they do, the history about how we figured out these things (Like math for instance. Kind of a non-intuitive thing for overgrown apes to figure out on their own.)”
“HBO GO”
“Falling behind on projects (because I'm too nice of a guy and I like to help other people when they stop by my cube).”