ageing out of tech

Electronic components are just a way to implement mathematical functions. DSP does that too, but can implement more for less.

NT

Firstly, you appear to have missed the word "basic" in my statement, even though I emphasised it.

Secondly, you are jumping to conclusions about whether or not I regard myself as "brilliant". I don't, having learned /that/ lesson in the first two weeks at university. (Fortunately!)

Finally, if you knew anything about my career, you would know that I have always been on the bleeding edge of various technologies, and have always pushed my understanding thereof.

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ad is that older people get left behind. I have lived that fear personally for the last 10 or 15 years. I have read books and watched videos online to stay relevent. And yet the attitude here seems to be... oh that is easy ...I knew everything since I was 15 years old. Don't you realize that the "I am brilliant" folks are the ones who get RIFFED? The ones who already h ave arrived and have nothing left to learn because they knew it all at age

I thougt 'laid off' only applied to employees.

nderstood it. I know, most here will say how they comprehended linear alge bra at age 16 (because they are so damn smart). I want to use MATLAB. Mat lab stands for Matrix algebra. If you do not really understand linear alge bra then how can you be a master of matlab?

ry aware of the fact that I do not know it.

that turns out to be something of a challenge. How do you know you don't kn ow something when you don't know that that something even exists?

NT

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l of the implications of e^iwt = coswt +isinwt. Using complex numbers in a transfer function for reactive components is just applying (but not nece ssarily understanding) how inductors and capacitors vary their response ove r frequency. It only applies in the frequency domain and it is also a resu lt of the fact that the solution to am ODE that contains a forcing function is the same forcing function. and if the forcing function is a sin wave then the solution to the ODE is the same sin wave with a phase shift and am plitude shift. I knew how to apply complex number theory to a reactive cir cuit before I understood any of the ODE theory behind it. And understandin g ODE's just gets you started on complex numbers.

read is that older people get left behind. I have lived that fear personal ly for the last 10 or 15 years. I have read books and watched videos onlin e to stay relevent. And yet the attitude here seems to be... oh that is ea sy...I knew everything since I was 15 years old. Don't you realize that th e "I am brilliant" folks are the ones who get RIFFED? The ones who already have arrived and have nothing left to learn because they knew it all at ag e 15 are the very ones that should get their asses laid off?

understood it. I know, most here will say how they comprehended linear al gebra at age 16 (because they are so damn smart). I want to use MATLAB. M atlab stands for Matrix algebra. If you do not really understand linear al gebra then how can you be a master of matlab?

very aware of the fact that I do not know it.

It is not you in particular. I am just frustrated that for me, it has take n 35 years of tooling away on my own time to understand the things I was ta ught in EE school, and as I come to various epiphanies about various subjec ts that I was taught 30 years ago, I find out that everyone here completely understood it all before they even went to college. Do you know how frust rating it is when it takes you 35 years to understand the ins and outs of s pectral analysis, ODE's, phase lock loops, stability, matching, reflection, smith charts, electromagnetism, circuit design, control theory, receiver d esign and come to find out that the majority of people here not only comple tely understood it after their first course in college, but most of them kn ew it in high school I feel so inadequate. Fortunately I have only recent ly come to realize my inadequacy, otherwise I probably would have given up before I even started 40 years ago.

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read is that older people get left behind. I have lived that fear personal ly for the last 10 or 15 years. I have read books and watched videos onlin e to stay relevent. And yet the attitude here seems to be... oh that is ea sy...I knew everything since I was 15 years old. Don't you realize that th e "I am brilliant" folks are the ones who get RIFFED? The ones who already have arrived and have nothing left to learn because they knew it all at ag e 15 are the very ones that should get their asses laid off?

understood it. I know, most here will say how they comprehended linear al gebra at age 16 (because they are so damn smart). I want to use MATLAB. M atlab stands for Matrix algebra. If you do not really understand linear al gebra then how can you be a master of matlab?

very aware of the fact that I do not know it.

know something when you don't know that that something even exists?

And that, my friend, is what the EE school truly does to the student. It in troduces the student to a vast ocean of stuff that you only know exists whe n you graduate from college. And after 4 years of 65% on college exams, yo u come out realizing that you have actually not arrived but that you have a lifetime of learning , just to grasp the fundamentals.

Thirty is "elderly" ?

We did study complex numbers/plane and trig in high school. The i/q thing is easy if you think of X and Y and angles in the geometric sense, things you can sketch and visualize physically. I don't think I have actually done any formal "complex math" in years.

Lots of really smart people have provided tools for doing complex math and analog/digital filter design. They are specialists.

Do you have an EE degree? Back in the distant past, ee students were forced to do the math, to learn basic circuit theory and the signals-and-systems stuff. That's good to have forced into a person when they are young.

It's really not so hard in real life, but the academic approach, pages of equations, doesn't train instincts, especially for older people trying to teach themselves.

Complex numbers, to us, is mostly just managing sine waves at 0 and 90 degrees.

This is pretty good,

but it's not so simple.

I find it harder to learn the heavy theory than I could when I was young. But now we have so many more great tools to help.

Yes, that DSP

Are we talking about digital signal processing? I can't think of

parochial specialization... yes like my Dad who was one of a handful of exp erts on carburation (fortunately his retirement, more or less, coincided wi th common usage of fuel injection. We all want to be parochial experts and we can dream of having the good fortune of attaching our careers to a tech nology where that expertise is valued. Go talk to the HP engineers. paroc hial specialization works until it doesn't.

We used a 6-opamp circuit, basically Williams 4e p 313.

In the Javascript web coding/video game development world, probably.

Not my world and thank God for that. They'll have to pull the soldering iron out of my cold hands. They can come n git me

You don't need to be a complex analysis masta to do a great deal of applied mathematics for digital filter design, that's what they invented Z-transforms for.

--

If you can prove that all non-trivial zeroes of the Riemann zeta function have real part 1/2 then you can collect some money for that.

You can choose to feel frustrated, or choose to feel elated that you did something that was difficult :)

As for feeling inadequate. I do too; I know I'm at best third rate. I worked with a person that I always listened to /especially/ when he disagreed with me - because I would learn something. He felt the same about some other people. Hence my being third rate.

It may be relevant that that person had /two/ antecedents with Nobel prizes, and that there are only a few people I respect as much :)

My father made a similar point. (He was a expert in two phase flow, which isn't so far from carburation!)

I occasionally tell youngsters that it is equally valid to choose to be a world expert in Xerox toner mechanisms, or a jack of all trades and master of none. But it is worth considering the concomitant advantages and disadvantages.

I chose to be a jack of many trades and master of none, and only occasionally regret it :)

thread is that older people get left behind. I have lived that fear person ally for the last 10 or 15 years. I have read books and watched videos onl ine to stay relevent. And yet the attitude here seems to be... oh that is easy...I knew everything since I was 15 years old. Don't you realize that the "I am brilliant" folks are the ones who get RIFFED? The ones who alrea dy have arrived and have nothing left to learn because they knew it all at age 15 are the very ones that should get their asses laid off?

ly understood it. I know, most here will say how they comprehended linear algebra at age 16 (because they are so damn smart). I want to use MATLAB. Matlab stands for Matrix algebra. If you do not really understand linear algebra then how can you be a master of matlab?

m very aware of the fact that I do not know it.

t know something when you don't know that that something even exists?

introduces the student to a vast ocean of stuff that you only know exists w hen you graduate from college. And after 4 years of 65% on college exams, you come out realizing that you have actually not arrived but that you have a lifetime of learning , just to grasp the fundamentals.

Man I wish my qualification had introduced me to that. The only useful thin g it taught me was the basics of PID control, and that there were more type s of filter than I realised. And that 99% of the course was a paperwork see king otherwise-waste-of-time.

NT

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I am glad that I did not realize how much luck plays in a good long career until I was well into my 50's. It is not all luck because you have to keep learning and going out of your comfort zone as needed. But if you are 55 and had tied your whole career to a technology that goes obsolete then it i s a tough break. And right across the street there may be another guy who became an expert in a different thing that is still in high demand. Don't most engineers become experts in a field that they landed their first or se cond job? I am

s thread is that older people get left behind. I have lived that fear pers onally for the last 10 or 15 years. I have read books and watched videos o nline to stay relevent. And yet the attitude here seems to be... oh that i s easy...I knew everything since I was 15 years old. Don't you realize tha t the "I am brilliant" folks are the ones who get RIFFED? The ones who alr eady have arrived and have nothing left to learn because they knew it all a t age 15 are the very ones that should get their asses laid off?

ally understood it. I know, most here will say how they comprehended linea r algebra at age 16 (because they are so damn smart). I want to use MATLAB . Matlab stands for Matrix algebra. If you do not really understand linea r algebra then how can you be a master of matlab?

am very aware of the fact that I do not know it.

n't know something when you don't know that that something even exists?

t introduces the student to a vast ocean of stuff that you only know exists when you graduate from college. And after 4 years of 65% on college exams , you come out realizing that you have actually not arrived but that you ha ve a lifetime of learning , just to grasp the fundamentals.

ing it taught me was the basics of PID control, and that there were more ty pes of filter than I realised. And that 99% of the course was a paperwork s eeking otherwise-waste-of-time.

I am glad that I did not realize how much luck plays in a good long career until I was well into my 50's. It is not all luck because you have to keep learning and going out of your comfort zone as needed. But if you are 55 and had tied your whole career to a technology that goes obsolete then it i s a tough break. And right across the street there may be another guy who became an expert in a different thing that is still in high demand. Don't most engineers become experts in a field that they landed their first or se cond job?

I'm not a mathematician, I'm a circuit designer. I don't have to understand it, I just need to make it work. If math helps, we might use some.

Mathematical functions are, sometimes, one way to describe electronic components.

Interesting circuits usually have no closed-form solution.