Russ Roberts makes an excellent point about Science and Economics (rtwt), and I think it's extensible.
The primary thing you learn as a Scientist is that you can explain some stuff well with math.
The primary thing you learn as an engineer is how to design stuff that works how you want it to.
The primary thing you learn as a manager is how to get people to do what you need, when you need it.
The primary thing you learn as an economist is that for complex systems, you can't design it to work how you want.
The engineer's and manager's understanding of the world, and the economist's are very nearly incompatible.
Engineers/managers ask: How do you solve problem X?
Economists say: You can't.
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Which may go some way towards explaining why so many of the Al Qeda terrorists and early communist leaders were engineers.
Though I can't say whether the causality is
control freak -> goes into engineering
or the reverse, or both directions.
What I can say is that engineers need some time in the biological or medical side of things. Where the best approach is to set some basic conditions, remove external causes of problems, and then let the complex systems look after themselves.
Doctorpat (medical engineer)
Undergrad in engineering, plus an MBA and MS in economics. No wonder I'm as nutty as a fruitcake and argue with myself. I do seem to have more hands metaphorically than physically ("on the other hand . . .").
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