Depending upon the part of the world you come from, there is an implicit assumption about whether or not an engineer uses tools. In some countries, it is assumed that it would be beneath an engineer, as a professional, to use tools. They are meant to be cerebral professionals. In some other countries, the word “engineer” is conflated with a number of different trades, and it is assumed engineers do little other than use tools. You will also find places that sit between these two extremes.

I am not going to have that debate here. You are an engineer, and you know what your specific role requires. Maybe you do use tools at times to do your work. I have been there. Maybe you work at a place where an engineer picking up a tool would cause a strike. I have been there too.

Instead, I am going to talk about the benefits of knowing how to use tools and why there is indeed a place for craftsmanship in engineering.

In a prior article, I mentioned the notion of the sensual engineer. The idea is that, by using all your senses, you can become better informed about any challenge you are facing and thus develop a better solution. When one has experience using tools, one can enhance the ability to imagine through multiple senses because making something provides sensory information about the object as it takes form.

Not only that, when you know how to use tools, you can explore the solution space as you try different ideas through rapid prototyping. This also increases your understanding of the problem. You will recall, if you have read my book on global engineering, that this is coevolution, where solving the problem helps you better understand it.

In earlier forms of engineering, the design of a solution often occurred as it was physically implemented. Read the excerpt below from Homer’s Odyssey. This is where Calypso is helping Odysseus build a raft. Note that, as Homer describes the act of making the raft, he also describes the design decisions being made. The passage depicts a form of engineering in which design and implementation occur together.

She gave him a great axe, well fitted to his hands, an axe of bronze, sharpened on both sides; and in it was a beautiful handle of olive wood, securely fastened; and thereafter she gave him a polished adze. Then she led the way to the borders of the island where tall trees were standing, alder and poplar and fir, reaching to the skies, long dry and well-seasoned, which would float for him lightly. But when she had shewn him where the tall trees grew, Calypso, the beautiful goddess, returned homewards, but he fell to cutting timbers, and his work went forward apace. Twenty trees in all did he fell, and trimmed them with the axe; then he cunningly smoothed them all and made them straight to the line. Meanwhile Calypso, the beautiful goddess, brought him augers; and he bored all the pieces and fitted them to one another, and with pegs and morticings did he hammer it together. Wide as a man well-skilled in carpentry marks out the curve of the hull of a freight-ship, broad of beam, even so wide did Odysseus make his raft. And he set up the deck-beams, bolting them to the close-set ribs, and laboured on; and he finished the raft with long gunwales. In it he set a mast and a yard-arm, fitted to it, and furthermore made him a steering-oar, wherewith to steer. Then he fenced in the whole from stem to stern with willow withes to be a defence against the wave, and strewed much brush thereon. Meanwhile Calypso, the beautiful goddess, brought him cloth to make him a sail, and he fashioned that too with skill. And he made fast in the raft braces and halyards and sheets, and then with levers forced it down into the bright sea.
Homer, The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 234–261, translated by A. T. Murray.

I should note that Samuel C. Florman introduced me to the idea that this passage highlights both an early form of engineering and the sensual nature of the work in his book The Existential Pleasures of Engineering.

Upon reading this text, can you sense the deep connection between the designer-engineer, Odysseus, and the vessel taking form because he is the one forming it? He sees the materials first-hand, so he can understand their suitability for the task. He understands that the tree trunks must be straightened so they can be fitted together. He can see where the mast and steering oar will sit as he constructs the vessel, and he can see the need to protect against the waves. Each action provides a better understanding of the challenge and what needs to be done.

If Odysseus were later to draw up plans for another vessel, perhaps an improved one with features not yet tried, you could be sure that he would understand the nuances of its implementation: how it would be made, how it might fail if poorly made, which features would be difficult to make well, and what would be needed to implement it. Having had this experience, he would be a better engineer.

This is, of course, from a very different time. So what does it mean for you?

Today, you could not practically hope to have the skills and experience of all the craftspeople involved in executing most engineering tasks. Instead, experience using tools can provide additional, rather than complete, insight.

It can also help you better understand the people you work with as you discuss the challenge and potential solutions. Experience and know-how with tools will improve your ability to understand both the challenge and the ideas put forward by others. That will make you a better engineer.
​
So yes, engineers should know how to use tools. You should also continue developing your craftsmanship because the experience of making things will help you more fully explore the engineering challenges you face.

In 2016, during the Syrian Civil War, statistics about the conflict were everywhere. Thousands of people had been killed. The numbers were reported regularly. And yet, most people barely reacted.

Then a single photo changed everything.

It was the image of Omran Daqneesh, a young boy sitting dazed in an ambulance, face bloody and covered in dust. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even seriously injured. But because it was a child, and because it was visual, the world suddenly cared.

You might recall it. Can you also recall if it changed your thoughts about the war?

I remember being annoyed. People had been told about the deaths for months. They knew the scale of the suffering - including children. But they only seemed to care when the image hit their emotions.

This was not a new phenomenon. During the late 1800s, Belgian authorities were brutalising the people of the Congo. Reports were published. Descriptions were circulated. But global outrage only came when photographs appeared. One in particular, showing a father looking at the severed hands and feet of his child, triggered a wave of action. Words and statistics alone had not been enough.
The lesson is clear. If you want people to understand, sometimes you need imagery.

What this means for engineers
At first glance, this might feel like a very human failing that has little to do with engineering. But engineers face the same limitation. Numbers, tables, and percentages do not always trigger our full understanding. We often need to convert them into something more tangible to see their significance.
Good engineers learn to paint those pictures in their mind’s eye.

• What does it actually sound like when the SPL reaches that decibel level at that frequency?
• How would it smell if sewage of concentration x% entered the floodwaters?
• What tissue damage would be done if that voltage caused an electric shock to human skin?

In each case, data is only the starting point. Real understanding comes when you can translate the data into sensory and physical implications.

The challenge for the global engineer
We cannot always wait for the real image, the real sound, or the real smell. Our work depends on imagining those consequences before they occur. That’s how we prevent failure and design better systems.
So here is the challenge: next time you are presented with data, don’t just note the numbers. Take the extra step. Convert them into their physical impact. Hear it, smell it, feel it in your imagination.

If you do, you will have overcome one of the limitations of being human. And you will be closer to becoming a truly global engineer.

And you just might start to sense tragedy well before others.

Give thought now to how often you have only understood the seriousness of a situation after you experienced it in some way. And, based on that, think about if you need to put more conscious effort into using numbers to paint a picture in your mind's eye.  

When we talk about engineering, your mind probably leaps to blueprints, CAD drawings, graphs: visuals. Most engineers naturally rely on sight. But what if you could be a better and happier engineer by spreading your focus to all your senses?
To be a truly global or expert engineer, you need all your senses—not just your sight (literal or imagined).
Synectics: Engineering Through Your Body
In Synectics—an inventive design technique—engineers don’t just think; they become part of the system. You might physically mime the motion of a piston, feel the inertia of a valve, or walk through your proposed layout in the car park. This “sensual embodiment” sharpens your intuition about friction, resonance, and balance in ways a CAD model cannot.
When you feel the problem, you bypass the limitations of abstract thought—and you often find on solutions faster.
Beyond the Visual: A Full Sensory Approach
It is worth noting that, with age, you will likely develop subtle multi-sensory awareness: hearing the hum of a motor, feeling the vibration in a bridge truss. But why waiting for that to emerge passively? Instead, you can (should) train your senses deliberately:

• Listen to how systems vibrate or resonate.
• Touch materials to sense texture or stress effects.
• Smell overheated bearings to understand they are being worked too hard.

These can be your engineering superpowers; if you cultivate them.
A Lesson from Homer via Samuel Florman
Engineering isn’t new to sensory thinking. Samuel Florman recounts in The Existential Pleasures of Engineering how Homer’s Odyssey immerses us not just in sight, but in sound, touch, and even smell as Odysseus and Calypso fashion a raft. Florman writes that Homer’s detail brings us deeper into the world of engineering, in an almost romantic sense, by noting how all our senses can be stimulated by the process.
Why This Matters
We now live in an era reliant upon digital twins and simulations – and the chance of some engineers being replaced by AI. You risk losing the grounding connection to what it feels like, sounds like, smells like. And those are potent feedback channels. By intentionally engaging all your senses, you deepen your connection with the challenge ad your intuition for it. This makes a more effective engineer and you also get more out of the experience: making it more satisfying for you.
Take This Forward

• Next time you’re sketching solutions or creating them in CAD, stand up and mime the situation (or just use your hands if the office is crowded and you don’t want the attention).
• During testing, close your eyes—what do you hear, feel, or smell?

Becoming a sensual engineer I about reclaiming the full spectrum of what makes engineering more human and leveraging the power that offers.
Learn more about being a better engineer here.