On technical matters, like fluid mechanics, I usually understand the theory better and can work through new problems faster, but the older engineer I work closely with has a bigger bag of heuristics and standard designs (like when to use resistor-network approximations, what the general qualitative shape of this function is, how to solve this problem, etc).
One guy has a big bag of approximately the same advice we derive on LW, but it appears to be derived from practical experience (ideas are not attched to people, do lots of experiments, etc).
It’s hard to lay out specific examples that illustrate because each small occurance is more or less unconnected (because they don’t have underlying theory), and each occurance is relatively unenlightening.
Anyways, I’ve updated in the direction of “experience/wisdom beats intelligence/rationality, at least at first”.
On technical matters, like fluid mechanics, I usually understand the theory better and can work through new problems faster, but the older engineer I work closely with has a bigger bag of heuristics and standard designs (like when to use resistor-network approximations, what the general qualitative shape of this function is, how to solve this problem, etc).
One guy has a big bag of approximately the same advice we derive on LW, but it appears to be derived from practical experience (ideas are not attched to people, do lots of experiments, etc).
It’s hard to lay out specific examples that illustrate because each small occurance is more or less unconnected (because they don’t have underlying theory), and each occurance is relatively unenlightening.
Anyways, I’ve updated in the direction of “experience/wisdom beats intelligence/rationality, at least at first”.