In engineering, it’s not about what you know; it’s about how you think.

In engineering, it’s not about what you know; it’s about how you think.

This is a line I read last week in one of the newsletters I subscribed to. It made me think: what makes a better engineer? What are the traits I see in the best engineers I have met? And what are the common mistakes freshers often make in engineering?

The common answer was that the best in engineering isn’t someone who knows everything, but someone who has the ability to think differently and apply the concepts they have learned.

Now, what’s the difference between people who know and people who think differently? It all comes down to execution!

People who “know” just understand the concept. They often think that memorising the concept or solving problems related to it will make them better engineers. They know the concept theoretically and can implement it only when it’s explicitly mentioned. A classic example is many of the Leetcoders [ I know its a great platform; Here I’m talking about people who think software is just about leetcode and there is no point of development ]: they know the concept, have implemented it while solving problems, but don’t understand where to apply those concepts in real life unless explicitly mentioned.

On the other hand, there are engineers who think differently. They might not know definitions or even names. They don’t waste their creative energy trying to remember things just to sound cool. Instead, they understand the underlying patterns, principles, and the problems these concepts solve. This is what makes a better engineer. When they face a challenge, they rely on these principles and patterns to directly build and implement a solution, making them better engineers.

It’s important to understand that, as an engineer, how you think is far more important than memorising concepts, as many of us did during board exams and competitive tests. In engineering, execution is key.

In the era of search engines and LLMs, there’s no point in memorising concepts. Instead, focus on recognising underlying patterns and principles, and understand what problem a concept solves. This applies to both your engineering exams in college and the real-life problems you (if you’re lucky) solve in your day-to-day job.

So remember: in engineering, it’s not about what you know; it’s about how you think.