Mixed Signals Require Mathematical Solutions

Five guys staring intensely at a blueprint that's basically just a square with a triangle on top. This is peak civil engineering - spending hours debating if that line should be 2mm to the left while standing in literal dirt. The blueprint says "house" without saying "house." Meanwhile, the client probably wants a swimming pool, home theater, and helicopter pad added "for just a small additional fee."

This flowchart is what happens when career counselors have a mental breakdown. Engineering? Only if you're "good with things." Chemistry? Congratulations on your future as a "fussy pedant." And let's not forget Computer Science, perfect for those who prefer "slow, indirect evil" over the more efficient varieties. The beautiful part is how it nails the existential crisis of every STEM student. "Why do you want to major in a STEM field?" Options include "curiosity" (adorable), "to save the planet" (delusional), or my personal favorite, the dawning realization that STEM was supposed to involve actual plants for Biology majors. After 30 years of teaching, I can confirm this is approximately 87% accurate. The missing 13% is the path where you choose your major based on which department has the least uncomfortable chairs in the lecture hall.

The eternal dance between engineer and software! SolidWorks—the CAD program that engineers both love and fear—decides to randomly crash just as you're about to finish that complex 3D model you've been working on for hours. Then, like a sadistic digital entity, it promises another crash in 20 minutes. The sheer predictability of its unpredictability is the engineering equivalent of cosmic irony. Every engineer knows that SolidWorks autosave feature is simultaneously your best friend and completely useless when it decides to implode right before you hit save. It's basically Stockholm syndrome for people with engineering degrees.

The engineering hierarchy of troubleshooting in its natural habitat! While the mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineers actually diagnose potential problems based on their expertise, the IT engineer goes straight for the universal fix—turning it off and on again, but with extra steps. It's basically the engineer's version of "have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?" but with humans instead of cables. The beautiful irony is that the IT solution would probably work faster than any of the actual repairs. Engineers in the wild, demonstrating their specialized problem-solving approaches with surgical precision!

The engineering hierarchy in its natural habitat. Mechanical and aerospace engineers pretending civil engineers don't exist, while simultaneously terrorizing them with Newton's Second Law. F=ma≠0 is apparently the engineering equivalent of showing a horror movie to a toddler. Meanwhile, civil engineers are just trying to build bridges without getting bullied about their fear of moving objects. Classic STEM food chain dynamics.

The brutal hierarchy of physics revealed! Mechanics gets the sympathy card while mechanical engineers don't even register on the radar. It's like watching the academic food chain in action—pure physics looking down on its applied cousins with that perfect mix of pity and indifference. The theoretical vs. applied science rivalry continues, with theoretical physicists sitting at the cool kids' table while engineers are busy actually making things work. Mechanics is that middle child getting a condescending pat on the head while mechanical engineers are off building the real world, completely ignored by the ivory tower crowd.