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Beg, Borrow, or Steal (or Pirate)
Often when talking about projects I will utter something along the lines of: “Even if we have to beg, borrow, or steal to get there, we will find a way.” Before I get too deep into this philosophy, let me first state that this is not a Machiavellian statement to get there by any means necessary. Nor is it some sort of approval to ignore someone else’s IP and just pirate what is needed to achieve a solution (yes — I mean pirate. Stealing is taking the original item, file, or code. Pirating is creating a copy of an item, file, or code. Look it up!).
I am a firm believer in a philosophy that there are always a million and one ways to solve a problem. I believe that an Engineer is someone who can look at a problem and who both understands that there are multiple ways to solve it and also can come up with multiple paths to get to a solution. To me, the phrase “beg, borrow, or steal” is a statement paying homage to those who have come before. To the people that have created unique, elegant solutions, we Engineers salute you! We also want to use those solution to create unique, elegant solutions of our own!
While attending college for a degree in Engineering does not an Engineer make — it does provide a lot of benefits and structure around engineering methodologies. One of the most amazing concepts was communicated indirectly in school: Everything related to a…
