Think Like an Engineer: Use systematic thinking to solve everyday challenges & unlock the inherent values in them

by Mushtak Al-Atabi

Engineers conceive, design, implement, and operate (CDIO). ‘Think Like an Engineer’ presents CDIO and systematic thinking as a way to achieve the human potential. It explores how we think, feel and learn, and uses the latest brain research findings to help us unlock value and have a balanced life. The practical, easy to follow exercises given in the book can be used by individuals to improve their thinking and learning and by educators to empower their students to thrive for success.

Genres: Engineering, Self Help

254 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2014

Reviews

[Abdelrahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

"على الرغم من أن عنوان الكتاب "فكّر كمهندس"، لكن موضوعه في الأصل هو التفكير النظمي، فهو يتعامل مع الهندسة من خلال الحس الأوسع للكلمة، وهي كلمة مرادفة للإبداع والقدرة على التوصل إلى حلول خلاقة ومبتكرة لإطلاق القيمة وتحسينها. ويهتم الكتاب أيضا بالتطوير الكلّي الشامل للأفراد وتحقيق الإمكانات البشرية.
لقد كتب كدليل عملي للطلاب والممارسين المهتمين بتحسين طريقة تفكيرهم وتعلّمهم. وفي الوقت نفسه، يحاول الكتاب أيضا مواجهة بعض من احتياجات التربويين وصناع القرار من خلال مساعدتهم على استغلال إطار يديم تغير الثقافة، واللغة التي يمكن استخدامها لإلهام الآخرين وإيصال الرؤية."
- خاتمة الكتاب.

الكتاب منظم جدا ومرتب بطريقة جيدة تجعل القارئ لا يغفل عن الهدف الأساسي من الكتاب خصوصا مع وجود الكثير من العناوين المتفرعة.
كتاب رائع ويستحق كل ما بُذل له.

[Harry Harman]

Everything that is intentionally made by a person starts as a thought in the brain.

Predicting, pre-empting and preventing failure are important skills that engineers need to hone to be able to build reliable products that are safe to use time and time again. Interestingly, in order to prevent future catastrophic failure, engineers need to ensure that they push product parts and components to the limit and make them fail. This way they will understand the limits of safe operation of the systems they are making.

1. Is what I am making desirable? Does the customer need it, want it and like it? Does it solve a challenge or satisfy a need?
2. Is it economically viable? Will the customer be willing to pay for it? Is there a way to make it cheaper, more productive and add more value?
3. Is it feasible? Is the technology to make it available?
4. Is it ethical and legal? Does making or selling it infringe on any law or intellectual property (IP)?
5. How can I make it safe for both those who make it and those who use it?
6. How can I make it easy to make and use?
7. How can I reduce its impact on the environment even when it is no longer in use?

Johannes Gutenberg, who used the printing press in 1450 AD to print copies of the Bible.

Energy stored in coal can now be unlocked

That is why when we learn a new skill, it feels awkward in the beginning, but as we keep on repeating and practicing, a substance called myelin starts to form around the pathway of the electrical signal as it travels. Myelin is an electrical insulator and as more layers of myelin are wrapped around the neuron pathway, an equivalent of a signal highway is created, where very high speed neuron firing occurs.

In neuroscience, the saying goes like this “neurons that fire together, wire together.”

The Old Brain It is also called the reptilian brain because it is very similar to the brain of the reptiles. The old brain is rather automatic and it gets activated in the event of danger and lifethreatening conditions.

The collection of mental models that we myelinate and cultivate result in our overall mindset and attitudes that drive how we perceive the world, our role in that world, and how we respond to the challenges we encounter.

purposefully record 5 things that we are grateful for on a daily basis.

most of them reported increased capability to see opportunities in their lives

It is interesting to note here that computer science has contributed a fair share of our current understanding of how thinking takes place. In the course of attempting to build computers that imitate the human brain, engineers and computer scientists needed to understand how the brain works in the first place.

I have outlawed the Pword (problem) and replaced it wherever it appears in the curriculum with either “opportunity” or “challenge.”

As mentioned earlier, the brain is a power-hungry organ which means that thinking is an “expensive” activity, so the quicker it can be done the better.

“Abat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” If you have answered 10 cents, welcome to the club, you have joined the majority of 3000 university students who gave this wrong answer. If you take a moment to check your answer you will realise that the correct answer is 5 cents.

human thinking can be exposed to biases, prejudgment, discrimination and prejudice.

In order to rapidly transform the Chinese society from an agrarian to a modern one, the Chinese government made a series of planning decision between 1958 and 1961, these came to be known as the Great Leap Forward. One of the planning decisions was the hygiene campaign against the “Four Pests” initiated in 1958. Chairman Mao conceived the idea of getting rid of mosquitos, flies, rats and sparrows.

The design of the campaign against sparrows included destroying their nests and nestlings but most importantly it was based on preventing the sparrows from landing, forcing them to fly until died of exhaustion.

However, the Chinese government finally realised that the birds played another ecological role by eating a large amount of grain-eating insects, keeping their numbers under control. The net effect of the campaign reduced the yield of crops, forcing the Chinese government to abandon the campaign and import sparrows from overseas to re-establish the natural balance. The famine still resulted in the death of 30 million people. This is an example of failure to think holistically and in terms of systems, where introducing a change somewhere in a complex system often will have other effects in other parts of the system.

One useful way to visualise memory is to think of a computer. The computer has a large long term memory, the hard disk; and a much smaller working memory, the RAM (Random Access Memory). When we save a document, it is stored within the hard disk (long term memory). If we choose to edit it, the document is recalled into the RAM and a word processor can make the changes required.

‘Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything’. In the book, he describes many interesting memory techniques including a technique called the Memory Palace

Imagine yourself outside your home and imagine that there is a swimming pool that is filled with Milk. Clearly visualise this image in your mind. The image may sound strange, but that is even better

Steven Pinker, the author of ‘How the Mind Works,’defines intelligence as the ability to attain goals in the face of obstacles by means of decisions based on rational (truth-obeying) rules. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is the measure of the ability to comprehend logical, geometrical, and mathematical challenges. While IQ is a useful indication of future success, the challenges of the 21st century increasingly need other kinds of intelligence that IQ does not measure.

Signals flow in and out of the brain through its lower part, the old and middle brain; which means that any signal that goes through the brain will be emotionally “flavoured” before reaching the new brain for rational processing. This is the reason we sometimes emotionally overreact to events and stimuli. Being aware of this emotional overdrive and being able to manage the impact of emotions on ourselves as well as others around us is called Emotional Intelligence.

Now happiness is not easily define either, as it means different things to different people. The definition I like is that happiness is the quality of one’s relationships.

Missions can be outward or inward looking. Usually an inward looking mission focuses on personal benefits and it is difficult to inspire others to join and support; an example of an inward mission “to be a millionaire by 2020”. Outward looking missions usually have impacts beyond the individual and they can resonate with others who may support and help.

“join a gym and work out 3 times a week for a minimum of 1 hour at a time” is a specific goal.

“increase sales by 10% compared to last year” is measurable.

carbon sequestration, where the emitted carbon dioxide is captured and pumped underground into bedrock deep underground.

Many of the well-established products have earned themselves a permanent mental image: try to imagine a car, an airplane or a toaster and you will see how difficult it is to come up with a radically different version of them. When we are forced to remove (trim) an important component of the process, product or system we are improving, we put our minds in different frames that can enable breakthroughs. An example of using the trimming can be demonstrated here. If you start with eyeglasses, you will notice that they have two major components, the lenses and the frame. Now if we trim the frame and try to make it work, inevitably we will end up with contact lenses.

Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas for Cirque du Soleil
The circus management decide to Eliminate animal shows, the use of star performers, multiple show arenas as well as the sale of food and drinks in the aisles of the circus. To create a more sophisticated viewers experience, the circus Reduced thrill and danger as well humour in favour of more intellectual encounters.

So instead of shipping atoms and physical objects, the trend is heading gradually to shipping bits through the Internet.

Golf Balls have Dimples to Reduce Drag

If a product performs one function, it is called a mono-system. If it can perform two or three functions it is called bi-system and tri-system respectively. Those products capable of performing multiple tasks are called poly-systems.

Chris Anderson in his book ‘Free’ outlined fifty different business models that are built on being free.

ask yourself these questions:
1. How can I make it free?
2. How can I make part of it free?
3. How can I make it free to part of the consumers?

If we imitate nature successfully, we shall be able to build high performance pumps that imitate the heart, powerful computers and software that resemble the brain, filters that copy the principles of kidneys, and high efficiency photovoltaic cells that are inspired by the tree leaves.

In general, design refers to the clever arrangement of different components to work harmoniously to deliver a value or perform a task

Design redundancy is another way to mitigate component failure and increase product reliability.

may opt to install two pumps instead of one. This way the designer will ensure functionality if one of the pumps fails or is being serviced or replaced.

Design for Manufacturability: Designers need to make sure that manufacturing and delivering the product or service is no more complicated that it should be. requiring the use of fewer tools

Good products are intuitive and easy to use

Designers also can introduce constraints that make wrong usage of the product not possible. If the batteries need to be inserted in a certain way into an electronic appliance, the manufacturers often put a sign indicating the correct way of inserting them. A better design would be to make it impossible to insert the batteries incorrectly.

These tests can include the following:
1. Dimensional test: To verify that the product conforms to the designed dimensions.
2. Visual test: To verify that the colours, look and feel are according to the design specifications.
3. Functionality test: To verify that the system performs the functions it is designed to perform.
4. Reliability test: Products need to ensure that they can perform their functions over an extended period of time and in variety of environmental conditions.
5. Power measurements: If the product has a power rating, this needs to be tested and verified.
6. Signal quality test: For products that have some electronic signal exchanged, it is necessary to test for the quality, frequency, interference and strength of the signals.
7. Safety tests: Some products such as cars require destructive (crash) tests before they are certified as roadworthy. These tests can be done using computer and physical models. Some other products need to pass variety of stress tests before they are certified.

Often the most valuable discovery is learning more about one’s own self and one’s potential.

Alot has been said about the lack of women engineering.

One aspect I believe that we can address in engineering education is the cultural dimension by helping the creation of more female engineers as successful role models.

project-based learning program.

a doorknob affords twisting, a slot affords inserting, a button affords pushing, a board affords writing on and an Internet hyperlink affords clicking. When the affordance and function are aligned, we generally have good designs. As a rule of thumb, whenever you see the sign “Do not …….” You can expect some failure of alignment between affordance and function. Try to recall the time when you have seen a sign proclaiming “Do not sit!” Often this is related to an object that you can sit on, the object is almost inviting you to sit on it; however, the object may be a box that is too frail and can collapse under your weight. Other examples include, “Do not push!”, “Do not pull!”, and “Do not write!”

Every day when I park my car at the car park at work, I take my bag and lock the car using the button on my key. When the car is locked, it gives a visual feedback, its lights turn on and off three times. However, often after walking to my office, I ask myself “did I lock the car?” It would have been really useful if the car key is able to give feedback indicating whether my car is locked or not.

Often after ironing our clothes, changing, and leaving home, my wife and I ask each other this question “did you turn off the iron?” In the absence of a confident answer, we often decide to drive back to check. We once forgot that we left the iron on and left home. The iron burned the ironing board and we were lucky that we did not have a major fire. It would have been very useful if we could get feedback on the state of our iron (on or off) through a mobile app for example. It would be even better if the iron is designed so that it turns itself off if there is no activity associated with it for 2 minutes.

The first ATM machines used to be operated in the following sequence:
1. Insert the card in the ATM
2. Key in the PIN and details of the transaction
3. Take the money
4. Retrieve the card
However, many users started to leave the ATM machine right after getting the money, resulting in many cases of card loss which overwhelmed the banks. Nowall the ATMs around the world are designed with a constraint that forces the customer to retrieve the card before being able to take the money.

Anthropometry refers to the measurement of individuals. Anthropometry is essential in the design of clothes, cars, doors and many other products that people use.

Negative Framing
You are faced with a situation where 600 patients are infected by a deadly virus. There are two treatments available A and B. Which one would you choose?
A. A treatment in which 400 people will die.
B. Atreatment with 33% chance that no one will die, 66% probability that all 600 will die.
Treatments A and B presented to both groups are essentially identical. However treatment Awas chosen by 72% of the respondent of group 1 (when it was positively framed in terms of saving 200 lives), compared to only 22% of the respondents for group 2 when it was negatively framed in terms of the 400 people who will die.
This knowledge is useful when designing policies and systems when we would like a certain behaviour to occur. If you wish to encourage the students to submit their work on time, which technique will be more effective in convincing more students to do so, giving those who hand in their work in time a bonus of 5 extra marks or imposing a penalty of deducting 5 marks for late submission? Test the validity of your answer by asking a group of students how they would respond.

Anchoring
This cognitive bias refers to the effect of initial, sometimes arbitrary, information on decision-making. In an experiment that was repeated around the world, the audience were shown an arbitrary number, say either 20 or 180, and asked a question “how many countries are there in the world?” Those who were shown the smaller number, 20, gave on average a smaller answer compared to those who were shown the number 180. The initial number seems to have an impact on how we judge future quantities and hence it is called the “anchor.”

Wewill always remember a simple message better than a complex one. The interesting thing is that, often simple is more difficult to achieve than complex.

To define core competency, let us first define both words individually. According to the Oxford Learners Dictionary, core is defined as the most important or central part of something; competency is defined as a skill that is required in a particular job or for a particular task.

What is the gap that the project is closing or what is the opportunity that the project is realising? An example for a gap can be “Customer satisfaction is down by 20%,” while an example of an opportunity may be “There is a demand for a smart phone application that can track the level of air pollution.”

“Implement a Six Sigma quality assurance programme to improve the quality of the products.”

Gantt charts are among the most essential project management tools. A Gantt chart represents the schedule of different project tasks and deliverables as a function of time. If kept updated, it can give an overall knowledge of the progress of the project.

Float (or slack) is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without causing a delay in the subsequent activity or the project completion date.

Mixed-blessing stakeholders are those who have high interest in collaborating with the project team and at the same time, if they are not happy or satisfied, can represent a real threat. Continuous monitoring and communication are necessary to ensure that they are positively engaged. Examples of these stakeholders are governmental agencies that have an interest in the given project and they have the power to shut it down, for example through cancellation of permits.

1. Novelty: The product or service is desired and/or needed and is new and no other competitor is offering a similar value. This could be through developing an entirely new product or service, such as the first mobile phone, or by offering a new service on an existing product, such as the first time a camera was added to a phone.
2. Performance: The product or service has a better performance that appeals to the customer such as being faster, lighter, sharper, etc.
3. Price/Cost Reduction: This happens when providing a product or service at a lower cost or providing a product or service that reduces the cost of running business or generates savings.
4. Design: The product or service has a superior design that customers prefer.
5. Brand/Status: The product or service represents a respected brand that customers prefer or confers a certain status. Customers may pay ten times the price of a car if it is of a certain brand.
6. Risk reduction: Aproduct or service that can offer the value of reducing the risk faced by the customers. An innovative insurance scheme is an example of this.

few know why the product is named WD40. The reason behind the name is that the manufacturer tried 39 failed formulas before reaching the successful 40th one.

only 10% of new restaurants survive and make money.

Examine what was the Root Cause of the failure (Ask 5 Why questions starting with “Why did this failure happen?” if the answer is the failure occurred because of “X”, then ask “Why did X happen?” and repeat this 5 times. This will yield the Root Cause of the failure)

When I ask my students questions like “How many petrol stations are there in Malaysia?” or “How many fish are there in a certain lake?” often the answer I receive is “I have no idea!” This section provides a simple methodology to enable us to develop meaningful estimations of the unknown quantities necessary to solve challenges. When trying to estimate an unknown quantity, it is necessary to realise that we always have some idea about the range within which the answer exists.

Even if you do not know much about Malaysia, there exist a range that you are confident contains the correct number. This could be between 100 and 1,000,000 petrol station. This number can be further refined by trying to get more information about the country, such as the population of Malaysia, the number of cars in the country, or even the length of highways in the country.

[Hadeer · Rating 4 out of 5]

لا أستطيع تحمل تكملة الكتاب لكي اُعطي رأيي كتاب رااائع ومنهج مختار بطريقه احترافيه يقوم الذاكرة ويسهل ويغرس الكثير من المعلومات شكرا أستاذ مشتاق العتابي
لكن النسخة ألعربيه فيها شيء بسيط من الأخطاء او عدم غرس الفكرة بطريقه مشابهة وان شاءالله بعد ضبط اللغة الإنكليزية سوف أعيد قرائته باللغة الإنكليزية

[Ntombizakhona Mabaso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a holistic approach to logical reasoning that includes soft skills such as empathy and listening as well as entrepreneurial and innovative thinking that focuses on prioritizing the customer...

Mushtak Al-Atabi mentions the following in the epilogue:
"Although the book is entitled “Think Like an Engineer,” it is essentially about systematic thinking. It deals with engineering from the wider sense of the word, a word that is a synonymous with ingenuity and the ability to come up with creative and innovative solutions to unlock and enhance value. The book is also concerned with the holistic development of individuals and societies and the fulfilment of the human potential.

It is written as a practical guide to students and practitioners interested in improving how they think and learn. At the same time, the book is also tries to address some of the needs of educators and policy makers by helping them utilise a framework that can sustain a culture change, and the language that can be used to inspire others and communicate the vision."

[Lee Cochran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Read For Student Wanting An Introduction to Engineering With Cavets

There is a lot of information in the book on thinking like an engineer and solving problems. That said it is heavily weighted down with the number of personal stories of people around the world that either got an engineering degree and are doing other things like teaching or who had a depressing or tragic life and found engineering that gave them focus. The stories are way to deep for the causal reader wanting to stay on target which is engineering.
I must also say that this book though in British English focuses on Malaysia and the Far East. It does cover the problem solving methods engineering and quality control comes across. The methods can also be used to improve your personal life and use failure as a method of feedback and not an end onto itself.
The school is also heavily promoted not quote to the level of an infomercial but close.

[Suhrob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book as a gift for a high-schooler thinking about engineering!

Looking for this book on goodreads I've just realised that I wanted to read Madhavan's book with the same name.

What I liked here is that Al-Atabi sees the profession in broader context: spends a lot of time in teaching how to learn, mindset and about social responsibility of engineers not only on the technical aspects of the profession.

What I did not like so much is that the more technical parts were really shallow and since I was already familiar with the psychological research concerning mindset and learning, there was not much new to learn here.

[Abd elrahman Waleed Hamdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب ده مش لمهندسين فقط او اي حد عايز يبقا مهندس
الكتاب ده بيكلم ازاي يأسس فكر للانسان الناجح
انصح به جدا

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the read and had specific reasons for doing so. Definitely gave me good insight into how to approach my work and great tips on leadership, teamwork, and lots more.

[Ethar · Rating 5 out of 5]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Shuhada Karim · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book help me to be critical thinking.
it help me to be more understand the prospect of work as an engineer

this book help me to think positive as a girl than want to involve in the engineer world