Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tool Preferences: Scissors, a Scythe or a Mower?

No matter how much technology changes to improve productivity, the one constant hurdle to get over is our self.  One of the joys of working outside of one office and visiting other companies is to get a glimpse of how those other companies are different, but fundamentally face the same problems as everyone else.  It basically comes down to management, staffing and the resistance to change.  We want to do business the way we know and have experience with, sometimes even if that takes longer.  The problem is the accelerated rate that technology is changing around the established business model.

Senior engineers and designers have an extensive amount of project experience and knowledge, but are more likely to resist changing their techniques after 20 or more years.  Junior engineers and designers provide more book knowledge than experience and tend to embrace technology faster.  The idea of reverse mentoring has become more prevalent as younger employees can learn experience based knowledge from older colleagues, but can simultaneously teach the older employees how to utilize the swarm of gadgets and gizmos that can save time and provide accurate feedback.

Another recommended trend is to seek help outside of your firm.  This takes a little getting over pride, but can be very beneficial to saving time and quickly getting back to a profit.  BIM is a vast universe of understanding and development.  Firms are operating at all levels of skill.  Wouldn't it be an advantage to gain knowledge to jump start a new program, rather than suffer through common mistakes?  It isn't that one person or firm is better than another, just a little further in the race.  We are all smart people capable of achieving what we set our goals out to be.  Isn't it wise to also reach out for help to get a boost?  We are talking about the tools used to do our work, not the work itself.  To think that you know everything you need to know and can stop learning and searching for more understanding is the beginning of a decline in abilities.  

 There are plenty of ways to cut grass.  If you wanted to be very meticulous, by all means use the scissors and clear a few weeks in your calendar.  The Scythe is impressive, but takes finesse and skill to master it and will be time consuming.  A push mower is great for the environment, maybe just not for your back.  Finally, utilize the benefit of a gas-powered mower and let it handle the work while you guide it.  But, when you are modeling a project would you want the residential walk behind or the industrial ride?  
When modeling a building, do you really want to place and size every element manually, or would you rather develop systems for automatic placement of components and automatic sizing and formatting with feedback of component's performance?  Sure, you could figure this all out on your own if you wanted.  How long would that take and why not just ask someone who already has and is willing to help?  Wouldn't that be to your advantage?

-Craig

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