Still Need to Know the Basics

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss how in spite of all the wonderful new techniques and technologies that are becoming available … we still need to focus almost all our effort on the basics.

Key Points

Join Chris and Fred as they discuss the ‘basics.’ We have so much information, so many courses, so many pieces of software, so much data (et cetera) … so why aren’t we using artificial intelligence to come up with ways to (for example) stop bolts from falling off?

Topics include:

Sophisticated tools can be ‘too sophisticated’ for us. Most software packages can spit out a number, or show a chart. So what? Does this help you make a decision? Do you know if there may be some issue with the underlying assumptions or data source? Do you inherently know when this applies to your application? Are you able to look at (for example) the shape of a Weibull plot and immediately see if this is wrong for your part or component? Sophisticated tools can’t help us with this. They can provide us with sophisticated outputs, but it starts with knowing the basics to be able to use those outputs. And this often means that you do courses that teaches you how to do the things that the software is doing ‘in’ the computer.
It can be embarrassing to not know the basics. It often shouldn’t be … even reliability engineers who teach reliability engineering courses need to go to the textbook to find the right equation.
The ‘basics’ are the ‘basics’ for a reason. There is a reason the term ‘foundation’ has been parlayed into everyday use. A ‘foundation’ is what a building or structure is built upon. It is the most important part of that building or structure. Every time you construct a new building or structure … you need a foundation. And foundations tend to not change. The bedrock that houses were built upon thousands of years ago is the same bedrock we build skyscrapers on today.
Academics aren’t here to help … they are quite literally get paid to come up with stuff that hasn’t been come up with yet. Which is not the basics. And is often not helpful.

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