Engineering Stewardship

David Brooks had a great column (to be honest, 99% of his columns are great!) in the Friday New York Times - - Why Our Elites Stink.

We ought to ponder the following comments - -

"The best of the WASP elites had a stewardship mentality, that they were temporary caretakers of institutions that would span generations.  They cruelly ostracized people who did not live up to their codes of gentlemanly conduct and scrupulosity.  They were insular and struggled with intimacy, but they did believe in restraint, reticence and service.

Today's elite is more talented and open but lacks a self-conscious leadership code.  The language of meritocracy (how to succeed?) has eclipsed the language of morality (how to be virtuous).  Wall Street firms, for example, now hire on the basis of youth and brains, not experience and character.  Most of their problems can be traced to this.

If you read the e-mails form the Libor scandal you get the same sensation you get from reading the e-mails in so many recent scandals: these people are brats; they have no sense that they are guardians for an institution the world depends on; they have no consciousness of their larger social role."

Make no mistake regarding our role in society.  Engineering is part of the meritocratic elite.  Like Brooks makes clear, it is very important we recognize this.  Because once you understand your place in society, the easier it becomes to start thinking in terms of responsibilities and obligations and not just opportunities.  What is the larger social role of engineering?  What institutions are we tasked with guarding that civilization depends so heavily on?  How do we balance the "how to succeed" part with the "how to be virtuous" part?

Finally, engineering stewardship must go beyond the simple act of managing a set of professional outcomes.  To be an engineering elite is to understand how "morally precarious privilege" is and how much responsibility it entails.

To be an elite, society needs you to act and function as one.