​The Hip-Shootin’ Engineer

Or: Seriously; Do you even think!?!

In this article I am going to talk about a common phenomenon that has afflicted at least one engineer (usually more) in every company I have worked for. It affects engineers (and others) around the world.
And it might affect you!
And if so, then you want to know it – and how to overcome it.
Because this phenomenon is practically the first key thing you need to overcome if you wish to be a global engineer. In fact, once you crack this, the rest is fairly easy.
Which is why it is so sad to see engineers who have been limited by the phenomenon their entire careers – and never progressing as much as they otherwise could have.
So what is this phenomenon?
It has been described by numerous people in different ways with different perspectives. But you can basically say it is the notion of true independent thought.
Independent thought means you are no longer reacting to a situation. Instead, you contemplate it, you ask yourself questions about that situation, you are then prompted to think more, you collect information, you try solutions or responses to better understand the situation – and not necessarily solve it. Basically, you “explore” the situation.
No matter the culture you come from, it was likely heavily influenced by someone (and others) like this. History has many such people who thought for themselves and then laid foundations for others to work with. Adam Smith. Confucius. Mohammad. Aristotle. Francis Bacon. Karl Marx. Buddha. Imhotep. Jesus. Deganawida. There are many more. There would also be others you know who also have independent thought – but they have just not been as influential.
You too want to be such a person so your engineering, while potentially being influenced by your background, is not controlled by it.
When you can think independently:

• There are fewer genuine issues raised with your ideas. Either in review or implementation. This is because you have been able to collect the information needed to create informed ideas.
• When issues do present, you can usually overcome them quickly – you are familiar enough with the context that you thought these issues were a possibility or you understand them in an instant.
• You can justify, to yourself or others, each aspect of any idea/solution you have developed.
• You likely took your time before launching into final-solution mode.

When you don’t think independently, and you tend to be reactive:

• You often find people raise issues with your proposed solutions and feel you are often criticised.
• You can be shocked when things don’t work out as you expected.
• There are numerous aspects of any solution you put that seem arbitrary.
• You probably jump straight into coming up with a solution, and, as you do, each step feels more like a reaction to the prior step than a well-thought-out step. You basically keep shooting from the hip.

Think about the above now – and determine what kind of thinking you currently engage in.
So how do you become the type of engineer who thinks independently?

• Before you take on any task, take the time to ensure you get it. Don’t just assume you get it.
• List questions you could ask about the respective situation – put dedicated time into this.
• Allocate time to review what you are thinking of implementing, be it a handful of concepts, your understanding of the problem to be solved, more refined ideas, etc. By having these breaks in your solution process, you can check if you have been reacting (shooting from the hip).
• Keep a list in sight (maybe on Post-it notes) of all the various aspects of the situation you have discovered – this is to remind you think about these various aspect, and stop the reactionary thinking.

Once these practices become the norm, you can better contemplate your own thinking. You can then work on becoming a global engineer – and that will now be much easier.
A note for managers – demanding a design log and regular reviews can have the desired effect upon any hip shooters in your team.