An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he eventually knows everything about nothing.
A systems engineer is one who knows less and less about more and more until he eventually knows nothing about everything.
It’s a joke, people, but with a ring of truth. The job of a systems engineer is to wander around a project on the lookout for the (usually bad) unintended consequences of engineering design decisions and prevent them from happening. (Ed. note: he wanted to call this blog “Unintended Consequences,” but we wouldn’t let him. Shadow, keep out of this.)
The job requires a little knowledge about a lot of different things, and the experience of having already made most of the common bad decisions. (Ed. note: he has lots of experience. Down, Daisy Mae.) Which is why systems engineers are usually graybeards - male and old enough to sport gray beards if they choose (and I do).
The good part of systems engineering is that it is hard; correctly done, one of the toughest in engineering today. The bad part is that success is invisible and failure obvious. You never know whether a successful outcome is a result of the systems engineer’s efforts or dumb luck. Unsuccessful outcomes, though? One guess where the finger of blame points ....
