When a journalist is a better engineer than the experts

Or, What’s with the love affair with the humanoid robot?

Many engineers can only imagine a humanoid robot and ignore the better solution - like a vacuum robot.

In this article we are going to talk about how engineers can make huge mistakes when they do not exhibit the attributes of good engineering. And, we will also see how people without engineering training can make better engineers (better than you even with your training) when they do exhibit these attributes.
Thus, this article is both a cautionary tale for engineers and a lesson in how you can always be the best engineer.
So let’s talk about robots – specifically, humanoid robots.
To start this conversation, take a look at the video below to see how this journalist with little science training takes apart supposed engineering and robot experts like Elon Musk. It goes for about 20 minutes, but it is very interesting, it will help inform what I will say next, and does provide a good engineering case study in its own right.

What’s your take on it?
For me, the following were the significant takeaways:

• People like Elon Musk and Bernt Børnich do seem to be victims of attachment – they want the humanoid robot.
• It is not unusual for people to want a human robot servant – the series of times people seemed to want to believe such technology was possible or close to being possible is congruent with such a desire.
• There was at least an attempt by Elon Musk to make it sound like he was being logical – the world is made for humans so robots should be too.
• But I think that is a case of the core psychological principle that all in sales and marketing understand and use – people make decisions based on emotions and then justify those decisions with logic later on.
• The journalist actually sounded more like the expert engineer:
  • Showing no attachment to the idea of humanoid robots.
  • Using systemic thinking by expanding the scope to having multiple robots dedicated to specific tasks.
  • Using first principles to understand the difficulty of bipedalism.
  • Using first principles to understand how much data would be needed for training and why the established datasets are not sufficient.
  • Noting the framing of the designers who conceived and developed robot vacuums.
  • Bringing all of the above together through logic to reach the conclusion, which would also help establish a frame, that robots should be designed for the job that they do – and thus avoid the unnecessary complexity that comes with the humanoid robot.
• While I would not be investing in 1X, I just can’t see their Neo robot going anywhere, I do think that the challenge of producing such a robot could produce some remarkable and valuable spin-off technologies.

​What do we take away from this?

First thing, it shows how easily we can ignore what we know about good engineering practice when there is something that appeals to our emotions.

In a global context, this can be even more significant; different cultures would, because they have different aesthetics and values, likely be emotionally aroused by different things.

If you are in a mixed team, then you might experience your colleagues getting excited by an idea, and then losing all engineering judgement and expertise, that leaves you feeling very uninspired. That means you can bring them back to good engineering practice.

The second thing to note is how powerful these principles of expert engineering – framing, systemic thinking, and first principles – can be. If they allow a journalist with no engineering training outperform Elon Musk, then think what they can do for you as a trained engineer.

So on the other hand, if you are in a mixed team, you might find your colleagues can bring you back when you are excited by something that appeals to you, and only you, due to your background. And that can help you be a better engineer.

Ideally, we can all do this ourselves, but there is no harm in having colleagues who help. And this is more likely in a mixed team.

If you want to know more about mastering these attributes, and you have not acquired a copy yet, then check out my book on the topic.

Think back now about times your attachment to an idea made you forget good engineering principles. Can you stop this happening again; do you wish there had been someone there to point it out to you?