In the US, I would say definitely yes.I have a few questions about this, though. Are opportunities more limited for technicians vs full blown engineers?
Unfortunately, mathematics (particularly applied math) is the language of engineering and electronics. If you are math challenged, it will be difficult to understand even the fundamental concepts of electronics. But certainly there are many people in technical industries that are highly successful without needing high mathematical ability (see Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.). Of course these people still have a high degree of general technical knowledge and even more business knowledge.
You mention opportunities and being entrepreneurial, but what exactly does that mean to you? If you better define that, then we can perhaps give you better advice.
Gates' father was a lawyer and his family was considered upper middle-class. Don't know that that classifies as pretty wealthy. But a lot of guys come from a wealthy background and, chances are, you haven't heard about many of them. Gates is a very smart and driven person, and I doubt that the amount of his family's money was that significant in his developing the largest software company in the world.Bill Gates came from a pretty wealthy background, without that I doubt anyone would have heard of him.
I know I didn't exactly enjoy all the math required in the engineering classes I took. And I also don't use most of it in practice. But I believe learning the math is necessary to understand the basis for the operation of all electrical and electronic circuits. It's true you can use algebra to solve many AC and DC electrical and magnetic circuit problems, but if you don't understand the differential equations describing these circuits and how they are converted into a form that allows them to be solved with simple algebraic functions, then your knowledge is rather superficial, and may fail you if you encounter a problem that can't be solved by standard formulas.sorry if this is off topic but I figured it would be best asked in this thread. I'm having to take all these math and physics classes for EE and I'm not really sure why. In my whole 10 years of working with electronics I have never seen an example where I would need really anymore knowledge than basic algebra and a little trig. Can someone give me an idea of why I have to take 3 calculus classes? I just really don't see how it's necessary. Thanks
From what I gather Bill Gates wasn't the best programmer, he strengths lie more in business, marketing and making money. He probably wasn't the most intelligent person at university but he was probable the most determined. I think that drive, determination and self belief are far more important qualities for doing well in business than brains.
From what I gather Bill Gates wasn't the best programmer, he strengths lie more in business, marketing and making money. He probably wasn't the most intelligent person at university but he was probable the most determined. I think that drive, determination and self belief are far more important qualities for doing well in business than brains.
No offense to Bill Gates but I read a biography on him at one point in school and was really let down. He doesn't really program or anything technical, his friend did all of that. He didn't actually create DOS, he stumbled into buying it from, if I remember correctly IBM but I'm not 100% on that. I think he just got lucky and got the timing right is mainly how he did it.
Gates' father was a lawyer and his family was considered upper middle-class. Don't know that that classifies as pretty wealthy. But a lot of guys come from a wealthy background and, chances are, you haven't heard about many of them. Gates is a very smart and driven person, and I doubt that the amount of his family's money was that significant in his developing the largest software company in the world.
In fact it is generally considered that Bill Gates was a genius at maths and indeed came top of his year at Harvard. He struggled with English and grammar though and apparently his spelling is atrocious. His backround I think was irrelevant. He is driven and determined to win, but also got himself in a growth industry right at the start and drove the direction of it through will power.
Back to the original post, you really need to be fully qualified to get anywhere in electronics. As a technician, your opportunities and pay will be limited
From what I gather Bill Gates wasn't the best programmer, he strengths lie more in business, marketing and making money. He probably wasn't the most intelligent person at university but he was probable the most determined. I think that drive, determination and self belief are far more important qualities for doing well in business than brains.
I agree, but I will add you are not outright born with these qualities - look at all the successful people (we have Richard Branson as your Bill gates) and they were all driven hard by their parents without which I doubt they would be where they are today. I would say they certainly have the predisposition to become succesful but I bet there are 100,000 Bill Gates or Branson's in the world for each generation that never amount to anything. It is known many very bright and capable individuals live a desperate poor-mans life.
There are also some very rich idiots that prove you do not need to be a cut above the rest to appear successful in life. We have Alan Sugar, who even admits himself he got very lucky - I am not sure but Donald Trump strikes me as someone who was born in the right womb.
Parenting is a heck of a lot more than driving your kids though, it is about bringing them up in a well adjusted environment amongst many other subtle things and as I am finding now is a balance you are always fighting to get right!
BTW I am not in anyway bitter about people born into money or privileged environments, in fact I have a heck of a lot of respect for people like Bill Gates - more than most people it seems. I just see that people who say you entirely make your own life are normally talking from a pedestal and haven't been (or started) as low as some of the people who never really made much of themselves. They feel they have to attribute the success to themselves in a form of self justification when perhaps they should attribute some of that success to their family or previous mentors.[/rant]
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?