Just one single phrase.
When said, can elicit such an emotional journey in a split second.
As a structural engineer when presenting your design to someone “in the industry” who has little in the way of experience or training in performing structural calculations and who does not like what you are proposing because it’s just too big, heavy, ugly, in the way, not what they expected etc. When you are dealing with loads which seem to have been generated using the suns gravity and using superman himself as a brace would simply make him buckle. They do not understand why a “sky hook” cannot be bought to fix the problem or “this is the way we did it last time” but the building was only 4m high not 40m. The discussion will inevitably take a turn for the worse when…
You hear them utter that one, simple, “classic” phrase.
Instantly you feel yourself sink back into the chair.
You check the clock with a quick glance of the eye, then, with another covert glance you check your calendar for appointments.
Calculations pour through your head with the same complexity as the matrix code to check whether there is time to formulate the monumentally in depth response, which, you must give to justify your decision.
Then, your core temp raises 1 degree in a fraction of a second, your heart thumps with the power of a cave troll with a drum. Your anger is all consuming as you take stock of what they just said and you think back to the number of days, sleepless nights, meetings, and calculations from first principles which led you to your conclusion.
How could they possibly even think to say this? Now, at this time in the project after all the effort of you and countless others have gone into this work.
You close your eyes and steady your mind, you take a breath as if you are about to dive 100m in the ocean.
You pause, make eye contact so intense you could melt their face from their skull and then, you just say it.
“No”
There is a brief moment of satisfaction and pleasure in what you just said as they flinch and look at you with disbelief. The calm before the storm.
The next 4 hours are spent trying to explain all the technical details and calculations at a level suitable for someone who has had zero experience with structural calculations so they might understand why you have had to specify such a large weld, bolt, beam, column, foundation etc.
And the response given in return after all that?
The same phrase which started this journey
“Yeah but, can’t you just”
And on a really bad day, in your darkest hour, like standing next to Big Ben as it tolls, they say…
“Quickly” 🤣