Benefit of the blog: I now realize how many words I use in speach that I avoid using in written communication just because I'm not sure how to spell them.

Here is something I've learned by being an Engineer:

The bicycle company that I work for makes a lot of bikes. People who buy those bikes expect high quality because they have to pay a lot of money for those bikes (unless they receive a stolen bike as a present or something, then they shouldn't complain). So, on our assembly lines we use a lot of process controls to ensure we make good bikes. These 'controls' can be divided into two types: ones that prevent bad parts and ones that catch bad parts. Obviously, the first is better. Let me show you by example:
An assembly line worker has to install the widget into the widget-hole. But, sometimes the worker installs the widget into the hole upside down. To prevent the bad widget assembly from being shipped out of the plant (to the customer), I use process controls. I could make some kind of tester to check the widget assembly to see if it is assembled correctly; that would ensure that the customer never gets the bad part. But, it only TELLS me that I made a bad part; I will still have the expense of re-working it or scrapping it because it has been assembled wrong. A better choice would be to create some assembly fixtures that might hold the widget and the part with the widget hole in a certain way during assembly, this making it impossible for the assembler to assemble the parts incorrectly. Not only have I ensured that the customer will never receive a bad part due to incorrect assembly, but I have also reduced my cost from reworking/scrap.

Why do I talk about this? Because I've learned that I can apply the same principles to my every day life. Let me show you another example: lets pretend I have some birds that I'm raising for meat. I want to keep these birds alive until they are big enough to butcher, right? One of the threats to their life is extreme temperatures (hot and cold). My house gets cold during the day so I have to use a heater to keep them warm. But, sometimes the temp of my house doesn't get very cold, so the heater could actually get too warm for the birds and 'cook' them. I could install a webcam in my house to monitor them from work, but this would only TELL me if they are freezing or cooking. A better way to protect them would be to install a thermostat onto the bird cage that would turn the heater on and off automatically. The thermostat would prevent the birds from getting too hot or too cold.

What are you looking here for? There's nothing else to read.