Decompile Your Mind: An Engineer’s Guide to Thoughts and Emotions

by Audrey Gilfillan, Colin West (editor), Colleen Ehrnstrom (editor)

No one enters an engineering profession expecting it to be easy. But even after mastering topics like structural mechanics and thermodynamics, sometimes an even more daunting set of tasks coping with the stress and pressures inherent to the profession while striving for the kind of mental wellness that so often eludes our complex and mysterious human brains.

If your mind were simply a sophisticated computer program, you might imagine hardwiring it into a software decompiler, in an effort to get to know it better; reverse-engineering the code to explore how it works, what its limitations are, and why its behavior can sometimes surprise you. In Decompile Your An Engineer’s Guide to Thoughts and Emotions, clinical therapists Alison West and Audrey Gilfillan provide this same experience, without the costly neural interface. Drawing on cutting-edge psychological research and their years of experience working with engineers, the authors reveal the inner workings of the mind and challenge you to learn from what you find beneath the surface of your consciousness.

What does it mean when an unwanted thought pops into your head? Is rational, logical thinking always the best approach to dealing with a difficult situation? And why do some of us struggle so much with self-doubt or procrastination? This indispensable book explores these questions and many, many more through vignettes, metaphors, systematic models, and exercises, all tailored to the language and experiences of anyone who identifies as an engineer or an engineering student. The result is a set of comprehensive self-assessments and mental wellness tools, custom-built for the logical thinker.

Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Andrea Dumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful for all sorts of logical thinkers to see everything laid out completely. I found the table for cognitive distortions most helpful.

[Anna Hemming · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors successfully scaffold the concepts and strategies engineers can use to acknowledge, understand, and adjust their ways of thinking throughout the book. Their expertise as mental health providers supporting engineering professionals resulted in the production of relatable examples and comprehensive tools for engineers' minds throughout the book. They provide honest, thorough, and vulnerable passages that convey their commitment to helping others improve their mental wellness. This book is for anyone, but especially valuable to students and professionals in STEM. I would also argue that it's also helpful to anyone who loves and supports an engineer, be it a family member, friend, mental health provider, or teacher. As someone who teaches engineering students, this book provided a wealth of knowledge on the personal mindsets, assumptions, and ineffective coping mechanisms that may be preventing students to academically, personally, and professionally thrive. I have more language and understanding on how I can support them in my role.

[MelissaPSU · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It supports engineers and engineering students feel more confident in managing the stress and pressure that come from such a demanding field. The authors’ leverage years of working with this population to create engineering-specific examples, vignettes, metaphors, exercises, and visual models that make the concepts concrete and easy to apply. I highly recommend for Engineers and those who love Engineers/Engineering students.