How an Engineering Mindset Works

In a lot of my posts, I frequently use the phrase "engineering mindset", and I often analyze problems "according an engineering mindset". I know that there are many humanity majors here, and many of you may not be aware of what an engineering mindset really means. The post wants to further explore how an engineering mindset works.

Actually, an engineering mindset works just like thne mindset you adopt when playing a video game. Let me introduce the game "Red Alert". This is a very old game that's very famous. It is a game where the player controls an army in real time, and fights another army controlled by the computer or another human player. In this game, the first level is very simple: you have 3 airports, 3 airplanes, your enemies are across the river, but you have constant parachute drops for re-enforcement. So the first time I played this game, I didn't know anything, so I tried to click on the airplane, then click on things that look like oil barrels, then I realize the airplane will then attack the oil barrels and when those barrels explode, the enemies will get hurt. Then I click on my soldiers, then click on the enemies's soldiers, then I realize my soldiers will go toward the enemies and fight them, then I continue to study and research other strategies and tactics.

The later levels become more difficult, it took me a long time to realize that you can create an "armory" to build tanks. So the rules of the game are written by the programmers, but it took me a long time to figure them out. But once I figured them out, I passed those hard levels as well.

Now, I incorporate that kind of thinking to my entire world outlook, including political outlook.

In other words, I see everything as a game. In the beginning, there's a China, and there are other nations. My goal is to make China strong. Of course this game is much bigger than Red Alert and may take decades and centuries, so people die before the game is over and others pick them up. Chinese may play unskillfully and lose, for example China gets split into many countries, or lose in a war, or lose in an economic battle, or lose in political battles, etc etc etc.

In this game, the rules are set by nature and by human society. So we need to study those rules well in order to "pass levels". This game is a lot more complex than Red Alert. For example, there may be a variable called "education", and the higher that variable is, the more effective and stroger your camp will be. So I will try to find ways to raise the education variable. Or, if I start the game with 1 million illiterates, then I'll try to find ways to teach them how to read and write, and then find ways to make them more educated, then more productive, and raise their living standards, etc etc etc.

All of those things are intended to help me pass levels, and ultimately pass all levels and win the game. In the game, there are times you need to buy things from other countries or sell things to other countries. If that thing is proven to be beneficial, then I'll buy them. But if that thing looks dubious, like democracy, then I'll observe those who have already bought it, and see if they are doing well. If those who bought democracy is stronger and more prosperous, then I'll buy democracy, otherwise I'll wait, or I'll think the seller is trying to rip me off. That's just the mindset of a gamer to improve its own situation in a game.

So in that mindset, there is no such thing as "humanity" or "emotion" or "patriotism" or "philosophy". There's only concrete things like "should I build an armory here or there", "should I collect minerals now or later", "should I trade gold for airplanes?", "should I divert more engineers to that area?", or "how should I reduce poverty", "how should I reduce illiteracy", "how should I make healthcare more quality and cheaper", "how should I reduce unemployment", etc etc. All those questions are intended to raise the power index, or skill index, or education index, or military index, or energy index, or whatever index that are vital to my game. Like in Red Alert, I'll not cry if my soldiers get killed, I'll only try to study if there is any strategic or operational mistakes that caused my soldiers to die, and try to prevent that thing from happening again in the future.

I think if every citizen of a country adopts that thinking, then that will create a formidable force. Because everyone will be studying for ways for the country to pass levels. In fact, I think a country's success depends on how each individual citizen thinks and operates, and that will colletively form the future of a country. Each individual citizen can be seen as a gamer, all cooperating trying to play the same game.

Therefore, I don't like words like "human rights", "democracy", "ethics", etc etc. Or I can say that those words are irrelevant to the realm of engineering mindset, and are beyond the study and research of an engineering minset. Of course, if there's a concrete variable called ethics in the game, then I'll try to find ways to improve ethics, because that'll help me raise my ethics index and thus helpful to my winning the game.

Finally, I think the reason that humanity majors are useless is that they study to much morality. An essay be very touching and induces tears, but I don't know how to write such essays. I only know how to write essays that are meant to analyze an issue or provide suggestions to solving a problem. What I care about is not whether something can make me cry or laugh, but whether something can give me valuable information in playing my game.