> Does the engineering mind come first, or does the school predate the engineer?
The engineering mind. There were people out to determien the way the world *really* worked, and how to utilize that info, long before there were schools to teach it.
> "No idea" and "I don't know"... Magnificent?
You betcha. The beginning of wisdom is the realization that you are missing information. If you are presented with a question that you don't know the answer to, and you just pull out some pat response to it... that is the end of wisdom.
> You didn't mean to take me out of context, or distort my question, did you?
There *was* no context to your "Why?" in post 85.
Good, I thought we had lost you for a minute there.
With regards to "Magnificent"...if your immediate manager were to pose a question to you, that he/she thought you capable of answering (to some degree, greater or lesser) and you simply said "No idea", without so much as a "But it's something I'll look into," he/she wouldn't regard that as a very "Magnificent" answer.
Your original response was:
"Guess what: "No idea" and "I don't know" are both quite simple, wholely accurate*, and at the same time, the most magnificent answers possible."
Explain to me how you got from simple (which is true), to wholly accurate (which is true only if the person is intellectually honest, and wholly clueless about the subject), to the most magnificent answer possible (which challenges the realm of factuality).
The beginning of "knowledge" (not wisdom) is the realization that you are missing information. There are many people gifted with the ability to accumulate knowledge who would not be mistaken for someone filled with 'wisdom'.
If you believe that knowledge is synonymous with wisdom, then I can better understand your individual logic.
And pat responses to questions may indicate "...the end of wisdom."... but more often it indicates an intellectual laziness, or a lack of desire to challenge one's preconceived prejudices.
And the chicken vs. egg question was rhetorical in nature.
Oh yes. The contextual question.
When you brought your impressive credentials in to the discussion, with rocket science nomenclature to boot, you started the post by saying "I'm an engineer." as if that were a defining moment in a discussion on theoretical applications of ideas (ie. the theory of biological evolution).
The context of my "Why", apparently somewhat obtuse to you, was to question whether those who seek out who, what, when, where, and how answers (ie. engineers) are the best at answering more complicated, less 'earthy' questions (ie. Why questions).