First you learn the value of abstraction, then you learn the cost of abstraction, then you're ready to engineer.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As an engineer, you learn there is a solution to every problem. It may take you a while, but eventually you're going to find it.
I'm not an abstractionist completely.
Unfortunately, I'm an engineer. I'm always thinking about, what's the task and how do I get it done? And some of my tasks are pretty broad, and pretty fuzzy, and pretty funky, but that's the way I think.
It's hard to do that with people who think emotionally. A lot of people think in terms of people, emotions, and feelings. That's more complicated. Engineering mentality makes it, in theory, a little easier.
Abstraction is one of the greatest visionary tools ever invented by human beings to imagine, decipher, and depict the world.
If, early on, you know how things are put together, then you can build. The architect is in charge of making - he is not an artist.
At Stanford, we teach 'design thinking' - that is, we put together small, interdisciplinary groups to figure out what the true needs are and then to apply the art of engineering to serve them.
No matter what engineering field you're in, you learn the same basic science and mathematics. And then maybe you learn a little bit about how to apply it.
I am an engineer, but what I find important and necessary is that you just learn things as you go along.
I had a lot of trouble with engineers, because their whole background is learning from a functional point of view, and then learning how to perform that function.