Engineering our mind

Today my second student graduated and left the university, it is a wonderful feeling. You know, I think I did my best for him. He sounds happy when he said bye and he thanked me for whatever I did for him. I believe I taught not only principles of engineering but also I gave him something that he can do more what he practised in the lab. He learned how to engineer his mind. He practised defining his problems and seeking affordable solutions for it. I think we all can go to chemical engineering books and memorise all of them. But analysing situations, making our mind, deciding effectively, predicting problems and managing ourselves are thing that we need to exercise. I know many good engineers with high level of knowledge but very week in making decisions or approaching problems. They are well educated but only on paper. For an engineer the most important thing is having a vision. It is like imaging whole the battlefield in their mind and finding the best affordable solution for defeating the enemy. So I had only one advice for my student:

Engineer your mind before doing anything else.