Babblings of a Self-trained Engineer Philosopher
This is about the blogger and online personality, not a personal bio; that being noneyerbizness unless you know me elsewhere.
God bless my Parents. When I was little they encouraged my curiosity by living on a farm and having a lot of junk for me to take apart and try to figure out not only how but why it worked.. or supposed to work.This is about the blogger and online personality, not a personal bio; that being noneyerbizness unless you know me elsewhere.
They also encouraged me to read anything and everything to satisfy my curiosity. This allowed me to do just about anything I really wanted to do as I got older. And when I got older I also wondered why people do what they do.
- sadly, my curiosity didn't extend to proper placing of commas, so bear with me.
Sometimes (Many would say usually) this led to me finding and imparting to others much more information than they wanted to know. Especially when I gave a talk, in departmental status meetings, on whatever project I might be involved in, I would go much further into the whys and wherefor's than required. Finally a coworker snagged me as I walked by his cube and pointed to a witty poster of the time which said: "Eschew Obfuscation".
Of course -being self-aware- I knew what he meant, so I just smiled. But it stuck and the next time I got on the then young internet I adopted the identity "Pettyfog" as my online personna. It was a play on words from the Dickensian use of 'pettifog' {self-important minor bureaucrat, not the 'evil lawyer' use}and I used 'y' instead of 'i' for two reasons. 'Little Fog' being one, identifiability the other.
- sidenote: I changed this 'quarrelsome' theme slightly on an auto forum when a supposed professional mechanic insulted all 'Backyard Shadetree Mechanics' as idiots because they didn't have paper credentials. So, on there, I became 'Backyard Mechanic' and delighted in showing his ignorance and stupidity whenever the occasion arose. I, amazingly, had several of the other pro's on my side.
I happened to be there on a potential business deal which never would have been offered if I hadn't educated myself in engineering, instead of following some academic path. And the deal never happened because I had learned to judge people on circumstantial evidence how they treat others in the immediate surroundings. My host on that trip was not only dismissive of others while being overly flattering to me, but the shady type and that was later borne out when he was convicted of embezzlement and fraud.
- note: Corey's politics are {were} the polar opposite of mine in most cases, but that shouldn't deter anyone in recognizing genius at what they do.
Like Corey's schtick, I see connections between just about anything and everything, which I call seeing the big picture. I never studied philosophy but I read philosophers. And I know philosophy, good and bad, when I see it.
Bad philosophies:
Nietzsche
Wagner the composer
The Doors
Pink Floyd
Young Earth Creationism {a boulder in the path of belief}
AlGore's babble
Keynesianism as a 'fiscal strategy'. It's a menu of tactics for centrally controlled economies, morons!
Good:
The Bible, especially New Testament. God gave us his Son, there is no prophet above his Son.
Machiavelli - 'The Prince' Try reading it un-cynically
Darwin - God created him, people.. Fundamental Baptist Farmers use his theories!
Freud - Explains a lot of Jesus' teaching and human nature, but then he thought he WAS a prophet.
Chicago School of Economics - minimally regulated markets/ strong enforcement of securities laws
