Searching for the Soul of Mechanical Engineering

A little over a year ago I switched into ME from Materials Science. I have since insulted myself quite a few times for making that decision.

What is it with mechanical engineering? Isn't it pretty much the first thing that comes to mind when people think about engineering? How does it manage to look so attractive from the outside yet so uninspired and bland from the inside? Basically, you choose mechanical if you aren't cool enough to do anything else. Want to do research? Go MSE or nuclear. Want to do cutting-edge design? Do aero. Start a company? Choose EECS. Run a company? IOE is for you. Save lives? Biomed. Don't have a clue? Mechanical.

ME occupies the vast, lonely space in between everything else. MEs specialize at nothing and share no common dream. It's the beta version, the default setting, the neutral territory. Yet, the more I think about it, the more I come to realize that being exceptionally bland, tedious, unfocused and all around non-sexy might be the real strength of the field.

Depending on who you listen to, there are two basic ways to use education to become rich and successful and do great things. The first way is to find a niche that is valuable and focus solely on that niche until you are one of the best in the world. The second way is to do absolutely the opposite and just learn a bit of everything. If both ways can work, it would seem that just having a plan laid out to use your education strategically is the real differentiator, but that's for a different post. In any case, while most engineering focuses on method 1, ME is the only one definitively planted in method 2.

There is a certain amount of risk in both methods, but the risks are very different. If you choose one focus, you risk two things: first, that you just don't have the skills to become an expert, and second, that you will eventually lose your drive or interest in that niche. If instead you focus on nothing, you risk that you won't have built up enough skills to do anything well at all. The thing is, the world needs both types of people. In order for a project to go well, you need big-picture organizers that can speak everybody's language and relate to all of them, as well as the specialists on the edges who bring the heavy skills.

For where I am at right now, route 2 is clearly the better option. With EGL, I already chose a diversified education over a focused one, and I never doubt joining that club. I'm also quite vulnerable to the risk of losing interest if I pick a niche (see my last post). And, in general I think big-picture people have more freedom to choose what they want to work on at any given time, allowing for more creative and diverse work (things I definitely value). If the price of that is flat, dry, grind-it-out with your bare knuckles coursework in the meantime, so be it. All those fools who chose interesting fields will be working for us someday.