Dyson Decries Anti-Engineering Culture

James Dyson is a hard man not to like. Softly spoken, charming and burning with a passion, he looks and sounds younger than his 64 years.

Having made a fortune estimated in excess of £1 billion, the inventor of the iconic vacuum cleaner that bears his name, along with a plethora of other products from a hand-drier that uses one-sixth the energy of conventional products to a fan with no blades.

But, Mr. James says, the problem, certainly in Western Europe, is that engineering isn’t seen as a desirable career. “We culturally are not interested in engineering and manufacturing,” he said. “In Britain it stems from the Victorian era where anyone involved in business was rather dirty.

“We had this 19th century disdain. That is what the lower classes did.

“It exists today although no-one will express it a class thing, rather than a cultural thing. Engineers are not seen as creative; they are people who make washing machines.

“I was appalled when I heard [the former U.K. Prime Minister] Tony Blair talk about the ‘creative industries’. Architects and publishers and fashion designers are part of creative, but so are engineers. We are make things every day. That is being creative.”

He said that both schools and government had a major role to play in helping rekindle the passion for engineering.

“Education is a good place to start so you get children coming through who want to read maths and science, and who see being an engineer or scientist or manufacturer as an exciting, cultural or artistic thing to do.”

He decried the multiple-choice approach to education where there is always a correct answer. “We need to get away from that idea. We need to encourage children to experiment, to find out things for themselves, to make mistakes, to learn from their mistakes and move forward,” he said.

He also called on the government to take big infrastructure projects seriously.

“The government should take a lead and say why it is doing what it is doing and be steadfast in following its course… [Students] would see a government that acknowledges that science and engineering is important and vital to our lives and an exciting thing to do. If they did that, if they talked about these things, made commitments, then universities would follow and businesses would follow the lead,” he said.

“What has happened is that you have had a lack of political courage, and no government [in Britain] has gripped this. France has, China has, Singapore has.”

Add a Comment


Comments (5 of 8)

View all Comments »
    • The class system doesn't help matters. Why work hard and take all the risks when someone else will inevitably take the credit?

    • "Democracy", at least at its current configuration, tends to assign power and prestige to those who are best at bullsh**ting ignorant masses into believing sh*t. Engineers and scientists, by definition, are far less capable of bullsh*ting (I know, I know, 99% of the published papers are bullsh**t but they are either different category, could neither win you admiration or much of a material benefits, it's a forced compromise forced upon us by the publish or perish culture essentially forced upon us by outside, in another word, democratically chosen power-holders who demand "accountability" which basically means you have to find a way to bullsh**t others into believing you could accomplish this sh**t in a year while in reality even God himself could not have done it in less than 10 years.), hence their gradual marginalization. It's survival of the fittest: as long as jolks always get the girls in school and lawyers always get the power in society, there will be no incentive to be a engineer.

    • The author has things backwards, but that might suit him.
      The Road to Serfdom is where Government's role is in picking winners. We should fight against that.

    • Unfortunately, leadership is often a matter of personality, and the personality that it takes to be an engineer is not what it takes to be a leader. So the result is that those who have the personality are the leaders, and those leaders look down on those who do not have the personality.

      In my view, it is not really a fault with the engineers, or for that matter, those in other fields who don't have that type of personality, but rather with the leadership culture. Why people should follow those who have the leadership personality, but don't know their head from their a-- is beyond me. My recommendation is that when you have a choice of who your leader should be, dump the guy with the engaging personality and go with the guy who has the greater intellect.

    • Cheap energy and resources have allowed the technically 'challenged' to enjoy the fruits of engineering, without paying the price. As Oil and other resources become scarce, engineering will find its rightful place among sought after technologies. Already, an oil drill operator/mechanic in Montana makes more than a Bank clerk in the city (the Bank clerk has a job mostly because bin Bernanke is printing money for the Banks). In about 5 more years, the impact will be felt much more.

      Engineering and science is what our civilization is built upon.

About Tech Europe


    • Tech Europe on Twitter
    • Tech Europe on Facebook