
On behalf of all engineers - Killswitch
http://blog.davidstancu.me/post/129217244524/on-behalf-of-all-engineers
======
DanielStraight
I appreciate the effort and kudos on being proactive, but this is not an
effective way of talking to someone whose mind you are hoping to change. This
will be read in a positive light only by people who already agree with the
author and are already upset about the situation.

In the very first paragraph, the author mocks the people he's talking to
("Much to my surprise, this was not a satire article on The Onion"). Then he
resorts to hyperbole ("inexplicably horrifying"), diverges from the topic at
hand to get in a jab at someone else ("as much as I like to criticize our New
York Police Department"), resorts to sarcasm ("Congratulations"), insults the
people he's talking to ("such a severe lapse of applicable common sense"), and
finally basically blames them for the downfall of a whole country ("Reading
news stories like this makes me quite ashamed to be an American; I want to
love my country and all that it stands for, but as long as this is the new
precedent that we are setting, I can no longer do so.").

This style of writing is great for riling up people who already agree with
you, but it's not effective at reaching people who don't. If you want to reach
someone, you need to respect them, listen, assume honesty and good intentions,
focus on the issue not the individual, and all the other aphorisms you've
heard about dealing with other people. It does no good to put the person you
are trying to persuade on the defensive.

Or in one sentence: You catch more flies with honey.

~~~
mach_kernel
You are right, but it is so difficult to not be angry about what happened. I
have some growing to do. I am the author of this. I feel very strongly about
things like this, and I think harsh criticism is warranted, although it is a
bit too ad hominem.

~~~
DanielStraight
To clarify, my intention wasn't to say that the criticism wasn't warranted,
just that it wasn't the right way to phrase it as a letter _to_ the people
involved. In a blog post directed to a general audience, it wouldn't come off
as harshly, but if I imagine the principal of this school opening it and
reading it... it's a different story.

And maybe I read it wrong and you weren't actually sending this letter and
that was just a stylistic choice, but my impression was that you had actually
sent (or were planning to send) this letter to the people involved, and that's
where I say kudos on actually doing something about it instead of just reading
about it as most people will do; I just want to try to increase the chances of
them responding how we would hope they would respond.

Finally, thank you for the reply and for receiving my comment in the spirit in
which it was intended.

~~~
mach_kernel
I realize that the people to whom this is intended to will be upset, but that
was what I was aiming for. I don't want to hurt feelings, but I think that if
you do something shitty, that feeling shitty for it is somewhat warranted. I
am just pointing it out. I like hearing feedback and I wish that I could be
less abrasive. Seeing the kid wearing a NASA shirt (which I have) in handcuffs
made my eyes well up. That is not OK.

As for the whole "proud to be an American" bit, I am just being honest. I feel
ashamed that this is where we are in 2015, reprimanding a young man for
furthering his education...that kind of behavior starts a very ugly
snowballing of worse and worse things to come if it is not corrected.

I did send this message to them. I wonder if they will ever reply. I think
that the POTUS invitation speaks volumes about the magnitude of what has
happened. Thank you for your feedback. I really do appreciate it :)

------
ndespres
"Similarly, as much as I like to criticize our New York Police Department,
upon having my bag searched on the subway they understood that an electronics
project is not a bomb. Unfortunately - there is one variable that I did not
account for - I am white and have religious beliefs in accordance with that of
the general population. What if I wasn’t?"

Well, you've got your answer. I've had Arduino kits pulled out of my bag and
seriously questioned. Part of white privilege is that we are usually believed
when we claim it's just a science project.

------
daodedickinson
You should write Hollywood; it is their electronics profiling that has
everyone but engineers thinking that every homemade clock is a bomb. Why?
Because every homemade clock we ever see (we only see them on TV) IS a bomb!

~~~
daodedickinson
To be fair, though, I'm sure this incident will be a TV episode within 2
years.

------
thisisandyok
In case the author of this letter sees this comment: the articles I've seen
spell his name "Ahmed." It's spelled "Amed" a few times in the letter

~~~
mach_kernel
You're in luck; I made the changes. My coworker let me know that this ended up
on here, which is kind of surprising.

Thanks!

~~~
Killswitch
You tweeted it. I submitted it. :)

------
ohitsdom
Thanks for sharing the contact information.

School- @IrvingISD

City- @thecityofirving

Chief of police- lboyd@cityofirving.org

------
cdnsteve
Thank you for sharing this.

------
bklimt
He's 14, not 12.

------
ausjke
A real engineer probably will not say "on behalf of all engineers", nobody in
this case is 100% innocent, plus don't jump into conclusion too fast at this
internet age until you do know the stories from both sides fully.

~~~
lloyd-christmas
A real engineer probably will not say "A real engineer probably will not say
'on behalf of all engineers'"

~~~
ausjke
the keyword is "probably" here, you seem missed that :)

~~~
lloyd-christmas
Missed it? I said it twice :)

