Loony liberals in my profession.....

[Chris_]

Background.....I'm an Architect.  I frequent another forum dedicated to helping folks pass the A.R.E. (Architecture Record Exam) as required to become licensed.   The exam is about to go through a painful format change, but the content will remain basically the same.  The quote from the thread I have brought over is basically about the problems getting exam candidates to read all the instructions.  For some reason, they don't, and that's the most common reason for failing the exam.

For what it's worth, in the 4.0 exam, high reading comprehension and analytic skills can hurt more than help. They've made a lot of questions that if read carefully lead smart people to interpret...which leads to a wrong answer. If you pose a question like "Capitalism is: a)good b)evil c)a type of deed restriction or d)a zoning principle" then a dumber person will readily choose A, and a critical reader will struggle with options A and B. A REALLY deep reader will choose D, because the study guides all cite property values as the primary reason for Zoning. And in the end, the dummy will pass, because the exam is not as smart as it should be and relies on certain cultural, basic assumptions. I am an exceptional reader, with the grades and the test scores to prove it, and I found the 4.0 PPP exam to be torture. It is badly written, and candidates are going to need all the tips they can get.

Note the highlighted text above (highlighting mine).  What a loon and a huge ego too! 

LINKY-DINK

[Chris_]

Coming from the Mechanical side of the engineering professions, you aren't going to get me started on architects, now are you, sir?

[Chris_]

Coming from the Mechanical side of the engineering professions, you aren't going to get me started on architects, now are you, sir?

Fire away.  My office is hip deep in liberal, tree huggin' loons right now.  They added a friggin line to all our office email signatures that says "please consider the environment before printing this email".   

[The Village Idiot]

Fire away.  My office is hip deep in liberal, tree huggin' loons right now.  They added a friggin line to all our office email signatures that says "please consider the environment before printing this email".   

I am sure someone spends all dasy thinking those things up and being paid for it

[JohnnyReb]

How would you like to retire and the only thing you'd be remembered for was that you were the guy that came up with  "please consider the environment before printing this email".

[Chris_]

Fire away.  My office is hip deep in liberal, tree huggin' loons right now.  They added a friggin line to all our office email signatures that says "please consider the environment before printing this email".   

Most of my encounters with architects go fairly well, so long as I remember that while we have a lot of the same training, architects are specialists in keeping buildings from looking like the boxy, cold-war era Soviet structures that most engineers would design, and engineers are specialists in making sure that the architect's pretty pictures can stand up of their own accord.

There was one guy who will probably live forever as the worst Architect I ever came across.  I was with a company that built custom steel work, and this area architect came to us to have us fab up the stairwells he had designed for a high school in Phoenix.  

I was given the plans and told to come up with the materials list and shop drawings.  Looking over the details on the main - most ornate - stair though, and I discovered that the desgin he had in mind wouldn't meet building code.  No problem, I drafted up a memo, citing references from UBC, and included with it a sketch of something that I thought generally fit within the design parameters he'd given us, but was tweeked just sufficiently to pass building code.  Faxed the notes off to him expecting that we'd get an answer back in 1-2 days; a week at absolute worst case.  

Well, three weeks of trying to follow up with him later, and I finally have him on the phone.  Yeah he read the memo.  No, go with the stair as depicted in the drawing set.  Okay I said, I'm going to need that in writing.  He faxed back orders to follow the details in the drawing set, and that day we began cutting metal for his stairs.  About a week later, our installers are literally turning the last bolt putting the stair in place, and the building inspector - who was on the site to look at another portion of the job - walks by with the architect, takes one look at the thing, and says , "You know that'll never pass inspection, right?"

Short version, we got paid to do the job twice, because we had his written "do it per drawing set" in the file.

[AllosaursRus]

I am an exceptional reader, with the grades and the test scores to prove it, and I found the 4.0 PPP exam to be torture. It is badly written, and candidates are going to need all the tips they can get.

I luv it when these holier than thou miscreants tell us how intelligent they are.

Hey dipshit, guess what, you still don't know your ass from a hole in the ground! Let's see how you do in the REAL world! I'd eat you for lunch!

I'll bet dollars to donuts you can't even change the spark plugs in your Volvo! Most "college educated farts" don't even know where they are!

It cracks me up listening to you elitist bastards, and I'll lay odds you are a bastard, because no self respecting father would let his offspring talk out his ass like this! I know I'd kick your ass for being a little pisswhistle if you were my son!

(missed a quote bracket)

[Chris_]

I luv it when these holier than thou miscreants tell us how intelligent they are.

Hey dipshit, guess what, you still don't know your ass from a hole in the ground! Let's see how you do in the REAL world! I'd eat you for lunch!

I'll bet dollars to donuts you can't even change the spark plugs in your Volvo! Most "college educated farts" don't even know where they are!

It cracks me up listening to you elitist bastards, and I'll lay odds you are a bastard, because no self respecting father would let his offspring talk out his ass like this! I know I'd kick your ass for being a little pisswhistle if you were my son!

(missed a quote bracket)

Yeah, we have a few (fortnuately only a few) of those walking egos in the office too...."think their sh*t don't stink" types.

[shorty]

My friend's dad is a engineer and he lived in Northen California for years and he says he tons of stories of liberal morons he deal with in his career.

[JohnnyReb]

Most of my encounters with architects go fairly well, so long as I remember that while we have a lot of the same training, architects are specialists in keeping buildings from looking like the boxy, cold-war era Soviet structures that most engineers would design, and engineers are specialists in making sure that the architect's pretty pictures can stand up of their own accord.

There was one guy who will probably live forever as the worst Architect I ever came across.  I was with a company that built custom steel work, and this area architect came to us to have us fab up the stairwells he had designed for a high school in Phoenix.  

I was given the plans and told to come up with the materials list and shop drawings.  Looking over the details on the main - most ornate - stair though, and I discovered that the desgin he had in mind wouldn't meet building code.  No problem, I drafted up a memo, citing references from UBC, and included with it a sketch of something that I thought generally fit within the design parameters he'd given us, but was tweeked just sufficiently to pass building code.  Faxed the notes off to him expecting that we'd get an answer back in 1-2 days; a week at absolute worst case.  

Well, three weeks of trying to follow up with him later, and I finally have him on the phone.  Yeah he read the memo.  No, go with the stair as depicted in the drawing set.  Okay I said, I'm going to need that in writing.  He faxed back orders to follow the details in the drawing set, and that day we began cutting metal for his stairs.  About a week later, our installers are literally turning the last bolt putting the stair in place, and the building inspector - who was on the site to look at another portion of the job - walks by with the architect, takes one look at the thing, and says , "You know that'll never pass inspection, right?"

Short version, we got paid to do the job twice, because we had his written "do it per drawing set" in the file.

(Think Midget)..."The plans"..."The plans"

Civil Engineers tend to be the same way, even when you show them that what they've drawn off on paper has a mistake or something that can't be done(at least without extreme cost). Problems be damned, stick to the plans. It was like you were asking to have sex with their wife or worse, their mother or something.

I did grading work, roads, streets, building sites and the best Civil Engineer I ever worked for was a woman. To her the plans were a general outline for the job, only a very few things were set in stone. If you saw a better, easier, cheaper way to do something, she didn't mind changing her plans at all. She said it was easier to change the plans than to beat your head against a brick wall when you didn't have too.

[AllosaursRus]

With 30 years of construction under my belt, I had to deal with both Archs and engines. Have to say the engineers were definitely the more intelligent and easier to get along with. At least they understood how things had to be put together.

and, (gasp), even took suggestions from us lowly supers! If you think about it, it's actually in their names. Archs are nothing but geometry while engines actually perform work!

(edited to add content)