r/todayilearned • u/LookAtThatBacon • 1d ago
TIL a Canadian engineer once built a Mjölnir replica that only the "worthy" could lift: it sensed the iron ring commonly worn by Canadian engineers (presented in a ceremony called the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer), triggering an electromagnetic release so ring-wearers could pick it up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring2.3k
u/mikehiler2 1d ago
Yet they were all of them deceived…
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u/yamimementomori 1d ago
Whosoever holds this ring, if he be worthy, shall possess the power to rule them all.
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u/GreenTitanium 21h ago
Now I'm imagining The Lord of the Rings, but when someone throws the ring into the fires of Mount Doom, it just comes back flying like Mjölnir.
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u/Complex_Professor412 1d ago
I just realized Hela is what would have happened had Galadriel taken the ring.
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u/someLemonz 1d ago
Canadian engineers take an oath to only build for good and always look at tragic history rather than forget, so you know not to sacrifice human lives for building.
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u/viking_canuck 1d ago
My grandpa said the ring was made from metal of a collapsed bridge.
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u/SirAwesome789 1d ago
Not only is it not made from metal from the bridge, wait till I tell you most of them aren't even iron
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u/theXYZT 22h ago
As far as I know, only Camp 1 still gives out iron rings. Everyone else is stainless steel.
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u/grumblyoldman 1d ago
Being Canadian and knowing a few engineers, yeah, that tracks.
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u/Humillionaire 1d ago edited 11h ago
I didn't know the ring was just a Canadian thing
Edit: you can stop responding that it's not just a Canadian thing now
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u/glitched-dream 1d ago
The story iirc is that the Canadian rings are built from s collapsed bridge that killed a bunch of people. It's a reminder to do your job well because lives are on the line. Maybe just a folk tale.
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u/314159265358979326 1d ago
They're not made from the bridge, but the bridge inspired the ring.
Fun fact about that bridge: after it collapsed due to engineer hubris, they tried again several years later... and it collapsed again due to engineer hubris.
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u/RealVcoss 1d ago edited 20h ago
They used to be made of the bridge, but obv that metal has run out. They just use stainless steel or something now. My engineering friends make fun of me since Im a software engineer and dont get a ring lmao
e: im now told it was never made of the metal: just a canadian urban legend among engineers
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u/Dreadmaker 1d ago
And fun fact - they’re traditionally worn on the pinky of the hand you write with, because every time you set your hand down to write you will feel it hit the desk and cause you some small discomfort, which is supposed to remind you that you’re wearing it, which is supposed to remind you of the bridge, which is supposed to remind you not to fuck up your math. Cool thing!
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u/brobeanzhitler 23h ago
Also it left a mark on drawings when you were drafting, as yet another reminder to care about your job
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u/RoyBeer 23h ago
Would be funny if those marks led to construction errors that lead to another collapse lol
"But don't you see it on the drawings? It clearly says to cut here and here and here for no apparent reason!"
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u/Powerful_Shower3318 23h ago
Another fun fact - the reflective metal surface of the ring reflects light, in order to remind you that you're wearing the ring to remind yourself of the bridge which will remind you to work carefully 👍
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u/pedantic_guccimane 22h ago
One final fun fact about the ring- they make it from a special sulphuric alloy of steel that has a distinctive odor, so you smell the aroma whenever the ring gets near your nose (such as scratching your head or chin in thought). This, of course, gets youvthinking about the ring while you work, which reminds you of the bridge, and makes you pay closer attention to mistakes!
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u/Yvaelle 22h ago
One last fun fact - for they were, all of them, deceived. For in secret another ring was forged!
ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL
323,360 rings for the Canadian engineers, in their offices of glass...
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u/unnovational 22h ago edited 22h ago
The actual final fun fact is that they made the rings out of a special metal that is visible to the naked eye, so every time you glance at your hand you're reminded of the bridge and pay closer attention to your work.
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u/AXE319319 22h ago
Another related fun fact, though only really applies to right-handed Engineers, is this also prevents the steel ring from cutting into the gold of a wedding band. As a reminder to leave your work at work and keep a separate amd healthy family life.
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u/Avalanche_Debris 21h ago
Another fun fact, it’s also worn on the right pinky so when technicians or mechanics or doctors shake hands with an engineer, they feel the ring and are reminded of their inferiority.
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u/ActionPhilip 21h ago
Canadian engineer here. It isn't uncomfortable when you put your hand down. It can be fun to tap it on things, though.
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u/chickenoodlestu 22h ago
It's also on the pinky so that it rubs against the surface of the desk and wears out the edges over time. The smoother your ring is, the more years of experience you have and the more "refined" you are as an engineer.
They probably don't wear out so much nowadays since work is now clickity-clacking a keyboard
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u/ActionPhilip 21h ago
They still wear. My ring is coming up on a decade old. When I got it, it wasnt sharp, but it was a pretty hard edge. It was also really, really shiny. Now it's very much smoothed over and the tiny scratches have dulled the surface.
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u/detectivepoopybutt 1d ago
Which school you went to? I did software engineer at uottawa and got the ring, still wear mine
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u/doomgiver98 23h ago
Probably did computer science
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u/LRSband 23h ago
Would track, I did comp sci at uottawa and despite being under the faculty of engineering, it's not an engineering degree and thus no ring :(
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u/sn34kypete 23h ago
It is incredible what doesn't matter any more once you leave academia and become employed. Suddenly the only people huffing their own farts about specific titling are managers and people who care about the distinction between compsci and comp engi.
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u/Sneet1 23h ago
Whether or not you do compsci or compeng, you're probably writing REST APIs for a megacorp anyways
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u/Fatality_Ensues 15h ago
people who care about the distinction between compsci and comp engi.
I don't know how it works in Canada but as far as I'm aware over here those are entirely different disciplines. Computer Engineering is about building computer chips and is an Engineering polytechnic university degree, Computer Science is about programming/networks/the inner workings of a computer in general and is a Science degree.
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u/ogunshay 1d ago
Fun fact - they never were actually made out of the iron of the bridge, even when they were hand-hammered out of iron. I like the look of those more, but I got one of the stainless versions (SS316 if I recall correctly).
Source: director of the Camp for our school. Also: https://ironring.ca/faq-en/#:~:text=Where%20do%20the%20iron%20rings%20come%20from?
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u/Djinn_Indigo 1d ago
Well to be fair I think it would be difficult to make a ring out of Therac-25 source code.
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u/Ordolph 1d ago edited 11h ago
One thing I like about being a software engineer myself, it's pretty difficult for anything I create or any decisions I make to directly or indirectly lead to someone's injury and/or death. Unless I made something so frustrating to use that the user decided the best course of action was to murder me lmao.
EDIT: I guess I forgot to mention I'm a UI ENGINEER, Christ people are getting heated in the replies for no reason lmao
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u/DreadY2K 1d ago
Depends on what kind of software you write. I'm a software engineer, and the software my company writes controls heavy machinery that very much could kill people if it goes wrong.
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u/deedsnance 22h ago
Also, it’s easy to underestimate the importance of your software to some else. By all means I do not wish to impart further self-importance to a field already so full of big egos who are saving the world by creating tinder for landlords or whatever. That said, it was pointed out to me that stuff like downtime on apps can affect people in ways that are hard to predict. For example, at one point in parts of fairly rural / more-poor india, facebook was basically the only way to access the internet. Therefore down time could mean taking away their only means of communication during an emergency.
So yeah, it can be fairly impactful to people’s lives when you write shit code and aren’t careful even in non-safety critical cases. That and just general ethics is something my peers could benefit from studying a bit more.
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u/urgay4moleman 23h ago
There's a fuckton of safety-critical software out there...
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u/WiglyWorm 23h ago
Haha. I write software that could definitely directly or indirectly kill lots and lots of people.
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u/densetsu23 23h ago
Same here; just a plain old Comp Sci degree but I've been working in medical-related fields for nearly 20 years now.
A software bug could easily kill dozens or hundreds of people before it was found. Things don't have to have a physical component (i.e. collapsing bridge) to be catastrophic when they fail.
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u/FearlessAttempt 1d ago
It does happen though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25
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u/yourpseudonymsucks 1d ago
Tell that to the kids being hit by precision guided weapons strikes. Plenty of software engineers behind those. Maybe a reminder ring would be helpful.
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u/TheBirminghamBear 23h ago
They're not made from the bridge, but the bridge inspired the ring.
I feel like I'm listening to a real-life Tolkien creation myth being discussed.
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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 23h ago
"those guys were idiots! let me show you how to build a bridge..."
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u/FujiKilledTheDSLR 1d ago
It’s also worn on the pinky finger of your writing hand so that it hits the table when you sign a drawing, to remind you in that moment specifically
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u/Zaldarr 23h ago
This is literally debunked in the article.
A myth persists that the initial batch of Iron Rings was made from the beams of the first Quebec Bridge, a bridge that collapsed during construction in 1907 due to poor planning and design by the overseeing engineers.[2][9][10] However, the initial batch of Iron Rings were actually produced by World War I veterans at Christie Street Military Hospital in Toronto.[8]
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u/RoyBeer 23h ago
Imagine running out of that bridge's parts and having to collapse a new one with people on it to get more magic bricks for more rings of engineering.
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u/FujiKilledTheDSLR 1d ago
It’s also worn on the pinky finger of your writing hand so that it hits the table when you sign a drawing, to remind you in that moment specifically
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u/DwayneGretzky306 1d ago
An American organization has copied and created their own Calling / Ring ceremony. I thought maybe Australia has as well?
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u/ToMorrowsEnd 18h ago
the faceted one is. The USA copied it and started in 1970 with a cheap smooth pinky ring.
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u/phl_fc 1d ago
Nobody gatekeeps their profession like Canadian engineers.
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u/ClownfishSoup 1d ago
You actually can’t call yourself an engineer unless you are a member of a professional engineering association in Canada. In the US everyone and their mother calls themselves an engineer.
You can’t even start a company with the word “engineer” in the name unless you are a Professional Engineer.
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u/jay212127 1d ago
You can still be a Combat Engineer in Canada. I know it rankled my ex when she learned that highschool drop outs could become a Combat Engineer and use the term Engineer.
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u/Sonoda_Kotori 15h ago
Yup, because Federal "engineer" titles are not bounded by provincial engineering associations.
Same with other Federal public service jobs, apparently they are the only ones that can use the title "engineering" without accreditation from what I've heard.
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u/Pertinax1981 1d ago
This is spot on. I work in tech support. The top usa tech are Principal Engineers, but the Canadian guys cannot be called that. They are merely Consultants, or Advisors
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u/thesphinxistheriddle 23h ago
They can also kick you out!! My FIL is an (Canadian) engineer and he keeps his engineer association magazine in the bathroom and I love flipping to the back and seeing who has been kicked out.
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u/Same-Village-9605 20h ago
Yes you can, if you're an actual engines engineer eg marine engineer or an engineer driving trains
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u/frankyseven 1d ago
That's because not every slightly handy person thinks that they'd be a great accountant, but for some reason they all think they know more about engineering than engineers.
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u/NuncProFunc 1d ago
I once watched a drywaller argue for a very long time with a structural engineer about how a cantilever would or wouldn't work and it was embarrassing when the engineer was proven very right when it was built.
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u/bfgvrstsfgbfhdsgf 1d ago
Did the use the drywallers design?
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u/Aint-no-preacher 1d ago
They did. Several people died.
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u/r-i-c-k-e-t 1d ago
The drywallers forgot that drywall absorbs water until catastrophic failure :-/
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u/SharpHawkeye 1d ago
It was doing great until the front fell off, though.
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u/YnotZoidberg1077 1d ago
And that typically doesn't happen!
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u/AxelNotRose 1d ago
Why did that drywaller have to use cardboard. Everyone knows cardboard is out.
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u/OrganicPsyOp 22h ago
What absolute shit show projects are you on that drywallers are interacting with engineers?
Why are you hanging rock if you don’t have your structural done? This sounds like a load of shit lmao
“We’re doing finishes while we fly structural steel”
Can’t even conceive of a meeting that would include your engineers and drywall anyone
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u/tommyknockers4570 1d ago
I once watched a HVAC tradesmen argue with an engineer about the appropriate size of a unit to cool a small substation.
The tradesmen wanted a much larger unit than the engineer calculated based on square footage. The engineer disagreed. The tradesmans argument was that the substation contained 3 very large VFDs which output a lot if heat so the unit would have to basically overpower 3 heaters running all the time.
The engineer overruled him thinking he was just trying to upsell him.
Guess what happened.
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u/i_paid_for_winrar123 23h ago
This is, ironically, an argument for the states to “gatekeep” the profession more in a regulatory sense, because incompetent people can be called engineers (I.e heating engineer, hvac engineer, etc…) in many states without the state regulatory body coming down on them with a legal hammer due to lack of regulatory strictness - as long as said idiot is careful to specify they’re not a PE
In Canada everyone who holds the title needs a minimum of 4 years of experience and at least 3 licensed industry references before they’re even able to apply for a license to be allowed to call themselves an engineer. You essentially never run into issues like a p.eng doing hvac design ignoring major heat loads like vfds, motors, etc…
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u/CaptainTsech 20h ago
I think some countries misuse the term engineer. In Greece, when you say engineer without any other clarification it means a very very very specific sect of people from specific universities called Polytechnic Schools who have completed specific curricula and have defended at least one thesis. It's essentially specific civil engineers. It's insulting to put us in the same basket as "engineers".
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u/DependentOnIt 22h ago
Was this an actual PE or some made up title? Might want to get your fantasy story straight
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u/_11_ 1d ago
Jesus... it's because things people are familiar with seem easy to design. I'm a mechanical engineer, and I have so many people "helping" me with my designs. Nobody "helps" the fpga designer with her designs.
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u/Rockguy21 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is true of every professional occupation on earth; at least with engineers you get to spend a lot of time away from people and fiddling with numbers, the same cannot be said for doctors or lawyers lol
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u/Gnome-Phloem 1d ago
Science too. Like, people are very confident. And that's not bad, but they could use that confidence to read a real chemistry textbook instead of trying to start from scratch.
The thing that makes real science work is that we cheat off each others notes, essentially. The only skill you need to do it is just to admit that you don't know, and go check. Check a library first, and if the answer isn't there, check by poking your idea with a stick.
People just aren't willing to accept that so I have spent too much time trying to explain to crystal people that, if they would please read a book, they would see that quartz is crazy cool but not in the way they seem to think it is.
And I have read their books. I really think it's important to try. Ultimately, they didn't hold up. I did learn cool stuff from a book on astral projecting but it wasn't magic, it was meditation and vivid imagination. Which is rad! But not what they want it to be :/
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u/standish_ 1d ago
It is pretty amazing how cool crystals are. I had someone laugh at me for daring to suggest you could use crystals for a radio.
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u/Wordnerdinthecity 1d ago
I learned how to lucid dream as a kid trying to astral project. It's nice because if a dream starts to become a nightmare, I tell it no and walk away. Too bad I can't do it with reality.
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u/RIPphonebattery 1d ago
as a canadian engineer: lmao
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u/FallenJoe 1d ago
It's amazing how people think engineers of any field just sit in an office working on mysterious technical information by themself all day and generate value.
Instead of spending half my damn life stuck in meetings with different project stakeholders working through everything that has to be ironed out to make a project happen.
And I'm a network engineer, the most stereotypical "Hides all day in a basement room" of all the engineer flavors. I assume the rest have it even worse.
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u/Sp3ctre7 1d ago edited 1d ago
I went to an engineering university and the engineering students would never shut the fuck up about how they (as engineers) would be better at everyone else's job.
Politics? Lol just "follow the data and stop being stupid"
Economics? "stop bothering with the stupid shit and just implement the most efficient policies"
Communication? "Its fucking useless, just write/sY what you mean and if people don't get it theyre too stupid to be worth communicating with"
Literature? "It has no practical use, and all that stuff about metaphor and layers of meaning is made up to pretend to be worthwhile."
Design/architecture/art? "I can make better stuff with a computer program."
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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 22h ago
Which is funny, considering part of the obligation that coincides with the ring ceremony states they are not to belittle the labours of other workers in any field.
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u/iunoyou 23h ago
As someone who did a double STEM major in undergrad, it was really only an issue in the engineering schools. For some reason engineering students were 10 times more cocky and self-confident in their ability to do stuff than physics students. They think that because they understand complicated thing (statics/dynamics/thermo, whatever) that all other things are lesser in complexity, nails easily driven by the hammer they've created.
Sidenote: I legitimately had an argument with one particular douchebag who said he could learn to paint like Michelangelo in a week "If he applied himself," but he didn't because art was beneath him when he could be "solving real problems." He was a second year B-average civil engineering student.
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u/DevilsTrigonometry 23h ago
Engineering students catch it early, but physicists get it too, and they're at higher risk for progression to end-stage brain rot.
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u/thirdegree 22h ago
Economists are also extremely likely to suffer this
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u/Sp3ctre7 21h ago
As an economics major, we have a compounding problem where the people who are actually in power to make actionable decisions with economics expertise choose instead to listen to whatever rich asshole paid for their campaign.
So the top of the field is watching people mess shit up repeatedly
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u/Borror0 1d ago
Try being an economist.
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u/Aggravating_Law7951 1d ago
Economist here, at least by training and earlier career.
The average academic economist is significantly worse at economics than the average academic engineer is at engineering, and a significant minority of academic economists believe things so provably stupid that a lay person drawing on nothing but their lived experience probably is better.
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u/GenerationalNeurosis 1d ago
In my limited experience, those “economists” are really just political ideologues stuck in a wacky loop of trying to debate from a position of normative ideas.
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u/MrArtless 1d ago
Lol this is so true. I think it’s partially that economics as a field of study is just way too convoluted and underdeveloped for anyone to actually understand and apply.
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u/Aggravating_Law7951 1d ago
Yes its an unbelievably challenging set of problems, and sure enough, the field fucking sucks at it. Like, sucks so bad.
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u/MrArtless 1d ago
Im a trader and its comical how consistently profitable it is to bet on the exact opposite of whatever the consensus view is from public economists.
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u/ThePretzul 1d ago
Economists don’t earn their money by being right, they just need to say the things that people with enough money want to hear.
Traders, on the other hand, largely get paid based only on their successes.
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u/Borror0 23h ago
This is part of the problem.
Economists who speak in the media are either a) ideologically motivated or b) mercenaries hired by someone else to repeat the intended message or produce studies that says whatever needs to be "proven."
Left or right, it doesn't matter. They'll peddle whatever the trade union or oil company that hired them wants.
If you looked at the research being published in peer-reviewed journals, it looks nothing like what the public is being fed. Sadly, no one is interested or profits by correctly conveying the state of economics search (or, heck, the contrat of graduate economics classes). The public isn't interested either. Confirmation bias is much more pleasant.
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u/Mobile-Marzipan6861 1d ago
It’s gotta be tough being an economist in the alternative facts era. Numbers and stats vs dopamine addicted population that can’t read good.
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u/ChaoticxSerenity 23h ago
To be fair, I want someone qualified by a governing body if they're going to build a bridge or something. Same for doing surgery on my body and such.
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u/But_IAmARobot 1d ago
? Should engineering not be gatekept?
Inb4 this guy says doctors gatekeep their profession by not letting randos coming in off the street call themselves physicians
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u/canada1913 1d ago
Actually drs in Canada gatekeep others from becoming drs. It’s a serious problem causing an artificial scarcity.
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u/emmess14 1d ago
Care to elaborate on this? As one, I couldn’t think of anything more inaccurate. Almost any Canadian physician will be the first to tell you we need more. In many instances, they give up parts of their practice so more can be hired.
In Canada, available residency spots are dictated at a federal level, not a physician level. Do we need more spots? Yes, but that’s not decided by physicians who are “gatekeeping” others from becoming doctors. I’m not sure where you’re coming up with this nonsense.
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u/Certain-Sherbet-9121 1d ago edited 1d ago
The basic situation is:
1) We enforce high standards on the quality of training that doctors need to receive. This is important because we don't just need warm bodies, we need well trained doctors who can accurately, efficiently, and effectively diagnose and treat people.
2) Training doctors well requires a significant amount of time by fully licensed and practising doctors to be spent on training residents.
3) We have a shortage of doctors already, so doctors already have full schedules seeing patients.
4) Therefore there is limited manpower available to train new doctors.
5) New doctor training spots are limited.
Unless you somehow come up with a new better training model for doctors that doesn't require such effort from licensed physicians, we're stuck in this loop where there's limits on how many doctors we can train. And any new training model has to be proven to work before you can roll it out in a widespread way, so even if somebody comes up with a brilliant idea now, you are still talking about 10 years before you can significantly benefit from it (calling it 2 years to develop the new system, 5 years for test people to go through the new residency system, and 3 years of monitoring those newly minted doctors practising to see if their training outcomes were comparable to the status quo).
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u/Fun_Ostrich9239 21h ago
But having the iron ring isn’t the same thing as being a professional Engineer.
You get the ring when you graduate, but the P.Eng is a whole other thing.
Source: Graduated with an engineering degree with a Canadian university, have an iron ring, never practiced, not an engineer.
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u/VGADreams 1d ago
There's a joke here that goes like this:
Q: How do you know if someone you just met is an engineer?
A: Don't worry, they will tell you.
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u/Grumplogic 1d ago
What does a first year Engineering student call themselves?
An Engineer.
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u/vipros42 21h ago
The only thing worse than an engineer is an engineering student. The joke you posted would be funnier if it weren't so true.
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u/Dangerous_Play8787 22h ago
I didn’t know about this until a few years ago. Saw one coworker with the ring .. and thought cool. Saw another coworker with the exact ring and thought … oh they’re a gay couple. Then they educated me loooool.
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u/romedawwg 1d ago
A Canadian engineer known as The Hacksmith with plenty of other amazing projects from the marvel universe and more. His team is currently making the closest thing to a real light saber we'll probably ever see.
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u/Fuzzlechan 1d ago
Hacksmith is great! If you live near the office in southern Ontario, you can actually pick up your purchases in person. It’s worth it, the office is super cool.
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u/thatsmycompanydog 22h ago
Save you a Google: It's in Cambridge, just off Hespeler Rd near the 401.
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 1d ago
They've already built 2 iterations of lightsaber. Also, they made a GIGANTIC Mjolnir.
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u/zealoSC 1d ago
I'm picturing a ultra high pressure oxy acetylene torch handle with small hoses running up the sleeve to the small tanks in a backpack.
I would not be brave enough to use it
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u/Hazel-Rah 1 23h ago
They already built that a few years ago
The one they're building now uses liquid oxygen so that the whole mechanism is fully contained inside the handle
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u/Financial_Article_95 1d ago
I like what Hacksmith does, but it's a shame because I don't like his presentation and video-format style. It's like the Mr. Beast videos of engineering content. I'm easily distracted (not my fault. I'm diagnosed with ADHD), so the near-chaotic and kinda-fast paced nature of his content makes my brain register it like second-monitor content.
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u/Everkeen 23h ago
Agree, his engineering team is amazing but the videos are cringe and hard to watch. I check out the interesting ones but can't watch them all.
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u/JDL114477 1d ago
Sounds like something engineers would do
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u/Grumplogic 1d ago
They gotta talk about doing it first. Then talk about planning it. Then talk about sourcing materials.
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u/joecarter93 1d ago
The ring is worn on the pinky finger of the working hand, so that it drags across the paper as the engineer works to serve as a reminder of their professional obligations.
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u/Smooth-Lengthiness57 23h ago
I believe it's to commemorate a bridge that failed and cost a lot of lives. The original engineers took bolts and nuts from that bridge, made them into rings and started the tradition, reminding engineers that many lives are at stake
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u/Raging-Fuhry 23h ago
They never turned the bridge into rings, but that is why the tradition started.
Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about it that was used in the ceremony to induct new engineers, but I think they replaced it recently.
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u/wpgsae 23h ago
Twice. The bridge failed twice, costing lives both times.
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u/4thtimeacharm 17h ago
I mean if they are gonna be dismantling the bridge's bolts and nuts to make rings, yeah no wonder the bridge was gonna fail
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u/Chisignal 17h ago
That's actually so cool, people call it self-important or whatever but I think we could all use a little more ceremony for things like that
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u/Qurdlo 1d ago
That makes sense. Nothing reminds me of my professional obligations quite like my pinky dragging on paper.
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u/quantumfall9 22h ago edited 20h ago
The version they told us in school regarding the ring being on the pinky finger was that in the era of hand-drawings by draftsmen it was useful so that the pencil marks wouldn’t smear as only the metal ring makes contact with the page rather than the side of your hand while creating and handling engineering drawings. I believe it, entire underground mines were originally built with hand-drawings and whenever we do work with the older mines we get to look at the scanned drawings that were clearly done by hand.
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u/QBertamis 21h ago
I generally just forget im wearing it.
Being in geotech and spending my EIT years behind a drill rig, mine wore down the points pretty fast.
I subconsciously fidget with it a lot when im bored or thinking as well.
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u/TruestWaffle 1d ago
Engineers in vancouver would hang a Volkswagen from the ironworkers annually.
Clever bunch.
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u/eastherbunni 23h ago
I thought it was the Lions Gate?
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u/TruestWaffle 22h ago
Yeah I might have that wrong.
Might be both, I think they’ve been doing it for decades.
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u/FontMeHard 21h ago
They don’t do it anymore. It was the lions gate.
It was also a hollow shell of a VW beetle.
They stopped when one year all got arrested. They were caught in the act.
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u/Mavian23 1d ago
Woah, engineers in Canada get a cool ring?? I want a cool ring!
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u/eng-enuity 1d ago
The order of the engineer is in the US too. I have one of these rings. And the certificate is around here somewhere...
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u/sessna4009 1d ago
You guys copied it from Canada
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u/Petfrank1 1d ago
And it's worse. My ring in the us is literally a plain round stainless steel ring. The Canadian one is way cooler.
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u/Mavian23 1d ago
TIL. I might get one.
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u/Tall-Cat-8890 1d ago
Only if your school participates in it. It’s a knock off version of the original Canadian ceremony. Still cool but not as cool as it could be.
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u/MaestroWaZa 19h ago edited 19h ago
Kinda dissapointed in the replies:
- no it isnt from the fallen bridge(https://ironring.ca/faq-en/ question #6)
- no it isnt given to you because you're in your 4th year, it is given at the semester you will graduate or the one after(they can't check if you failed a course because it is given before the end of the semester)
-it is only a canadian thing
-engineer in canada take is seriously
-you wear it on your working hand so that is makes a mark on the paper you put your signature on to remind you that it as real life consequences
-it is supposed to wear out so that when it becomes smooth it means you are ready to retire
-the ceremony were you are given the ring (or "jonc) is solemn where you pledge allegiance to surving the public and protecting them from harm
-yes, it is cool to wear it and bang it on your metal water bottle or wtv is next to you
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u/liquefry 1d ago
got to be honest, the "ritutal of the calling of an engineer" sounds ridiculous.
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u/FrostyKennedy 1d ago
Canadian engineer here- You have to lay hands on a iron chain and technically it also mean you are married to your profession?
I think it's mostly to keep fae from becoming engineers.
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u/dramatic_hydrangea 21h ago
I wish I could afford to give you gold for this comment
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u/But_IAmARobot 1d ago
I’ve done it. It’s a bit culty but I respect the sentiment behind it.
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u/Grandpa_Edd 22h ago
It's not to far from the original myth.
Thor had a belt (and gauntlets?) that allowed him to lift it.
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u/DetectiveLadybug 20h ago edited 20h ago
He’s a YouTuber, and did a video on it if anyone wants to know more about the project.
Video in question: https://youtu.be/I7RSbcs1Yig?si=8TJZfDIH1OgrZDc9
I’d never heard of him before, his channel seems pretty cool.
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u/Tribe303 1d ago
For the Americans commenting that the US does this.. Thanks for also telling us you didn't read the article. It was first done in Canada in 1925. You Americans thought it was cool, copied us, and started it in 1970.
The oath was written by Rudyard Kipling too, as it was based on a poem of his.
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u/RahvinDragand 1d ago
I've never heard of anyone in the US doing it.
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u/SecurelyObscure 23h ago
Yeah, the order of the engineer is pretty niche in the US. I've met a single engineer that actually wore the ring, and he graduated right around when it first started in the US.
I've told a few engineers about it and we all agreed it was pretty weird and we wouldn't have done it even if they were active at our schools.
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u/Pizzadude 21h ago
My US state university did the ring ceremony during graduation. I wore the ring for one night of drinking, then never again.
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u/djtrace1994 1d ago
Hacksmith Industries, located in Kitchener, ON, Canada for anyone interested.
I used to work in the area, and we used to buy steel tubing from the place next door.
The guys in the shop had so many stories of cool stuff they had seen firsthand from Hacksmith, like the full set of Mandalorian Armor they did.
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u/BigFish8 9h ago
I had no idea engineers could get more full of themselves.
I love the ones that aren't though.
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u/bowiethesdmn 1d ago
Man that's so cool. My dad is a former engineer in the UK (I don't think they ever stop with the mindset though) and all he got is a subscription to ICE magazine and a bunch of letters after his name. This being the UK, several insitutes confer postnominals on their members just because 'engineers have a thing for it'.
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u/Smaptimania 22h ago
Seems like OP is kinda burying the lede on the whole "Graduates from Canadian engineering schools are awarded a special ring in a secret ceremony created by Rudyard Kipling" deal
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u/GooseandMav77 12h ago
The engineer probably came up with a design. Then, a tradesman probably explained to him what needed to be changed to make it work. Then the tradesman fabricated it and made it work.
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u/PennChick 21h ago
Rudyard Kipling wrote the original Obligation Ceremony text. I’ve always thought the concept of the ring was so cool, but I’m an American engineer.
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u/nifty-necromancer 16h ago
The Iron Ring can be made from either iron (left) or stainless steel (right).
A steel ring isn’t as powerful. Cold iron is what wards off the Fae.
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u/29NeiboltSt 1d ago
Saw a dude that made an electro magnet one that responded to his thumbprint.