One of our professors starts off each course with a diagram with time on the x axis and % correct on the y axis.
He draws the curve starting at the origin and then quickly increasing up until around 90% correct. At that point it begins to level off as you continue in time.
He used it to illustrate that in the real world, getting to the final "perfect" answer sometimes takes double the time as getting to 90% correct with little to show for it. He then explained that in practically applying engineering concepts to real world projects, we make reasonably conservative decisions for safety, constructability, and budget. We don't need to spend another 50% of the project budget figuring out the absolute smallest beams for each location on the structure. What you spend calculating it may well surpass any savings on materials, you increase risk of beams being used in the wrong place from over complicating the plans, etc.
I think for many people that go into college for engineering, we like finding the mathematically optimal solution. However, for the safety of the public and the health of projects, we have to step back and redefine what the "right" solution is. The "right" solution isn't necessarily the lightest structure allowed by code. It can also be a structure that is both safe and reduces the risk of construction errors.
That advice has helped me not get hung up on some of the estimating we have to do on our site development projects, especially in runoff calculations which contain multiple inputs with ranges of acceptable values. We make our best (still conservative) judgement and move forward with the designs.
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Heidi C. Wallace, P.E., M.ASCE
Tulsa, OK
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-07-2021 08:08 AM
From: Daniel Bressler
Subject: Best Advice (from Professors)
I wanted to start a thread, perhaps a series of threads, if people find it interesting.
The prompt: What was the best advice you received from a professor?
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Daniel Bressler EIT, A.M.ASCE
Structural Engineer
Brooklyn NY
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