Cambridge, Mass. — MIT Prof. Emeritus Woodie Flowers is well-known for coining the phrase "gracious professionalism," but what does that mean? In this final part of EE Times' interview with Flowers, the MIT Professor Emeritus and FIRST Robotics developer with Dean Kamen explains what he means by the term and why it's important in education, in life, and in the world.
EE Times: In Part 3, you talked about machines taking over not only the training part of education but work that engineers do today. How does that affect technical education? 
Flowers: I'm trying hard to get the world to think about the right model for technical education, and education in general, for the 21st century. Although STEM and hands-on are extremely important, they're not enough. The real issue is, how do you understand the universe and understand society so that, by mid-career, you can still do uniquely human stuff? So much of what we do will be taken over by machines.
When I started as an engineer, the only way to get the estimates and answers that one needed was through classic symbolic manipulation and analytical thinking. As computers became good at doing things such as finite difference math and modeling, engineers needed a more visceral understanding of the fundamentals mixed with creativity and leadership.
EE Times: Is such a transformation happening again?
Flowers: We're going through another whole cycle now. Creativity and leadership are taking on new roles. Leadership may now be described as a mix of the old liberal arts education and a new version of engineering and technical education. Unfortunately, education doesn't change as quickly as does the world we created — we have many examples of how the world is changing faster than we're willing to accept. Resistance to change is true in the general population but I don�t think quite as true in the technical world. Although we have some social luddites in the technical world. MIT, like many other universities, is focused on innovation and new technologies. Technically educated people look forward, but I think we need to look forward by understanding our own brain and understanding society. In a radio interview, I heard a host say, "Creativity; that's what a liberal arts education is all about."
That galls me. That's not true. True creativity can, in one way, be measured by how well you can make your own brain's activity work in concert with the laws of nature or the universe. Uninformed creativity is dangerous. Well-informed creativity is wonderful.
EE Times: What do you mean by "gracious professionalism" and how does that play a role?
Flowers: Gracious is the empathetic part that has to do with dealing with other humans and being sensitive to the future of the planet. Professionalism has to do with acknowledging the deal that has been struck between us and our world. We've been given powerful tools. We've been taught this amazing concept of epistemology. We've learned to do things that Mother Nature will allow. That's the professionalism part. We know that we owe back to society the application of that understanding in a gracious way. To me, gracious is the part of the code of professionalism that's not normally called out. If we're going to make progress, we have to be sensitive to humankind and the planet.
I believe epistemology should be taught in high school because we need several generations of people who are devoted to truth. Technical people are in a good position to pursue truth because they've dealt with things where causality prevails. If you build something and it works, it's because what you've built is in concert with the laws of nature. That kind of truth is accessible, unambiguous, and palpably real. The truth associated with politics, religion, and society is not nearly as accessible, but I believe that people who have learned to seek truth are better equipped to deal with the tradeoffs of uncertain truth in the more complex world. That's why I think design teams learn very early that a compelling team member that's wrong is really dangerous.
Being right does not make you persuasive and being persuasive does not make you right. Truth is a much better friend than persuasion.
Design team members learn two things: Being right does not make you persuasive and being persuasive does not make you right. Both of those statements are very important in making you a professional. Don't use over-the-top statements. Why? Because you and your team are going to build something that will either work or not.
In a technical project, truth is a much better friend than persuasion. That's another piece of gracious professionalism. If you make outrageous claims, that's neither gracious nor professional. Your team members will see that you're not helping by giving them "soft logic."
EE Times: How can education result in gracious professionalism?
Flowers: Rather than argue that we should have all STEM or all liberal arts education, we need a new blend. The new blend is a bigger cup to drink. You must continue to learn throughout your life, so keep it up. Learn to learn. The people that get ahead are those who embrace new understanding. You'd better have a good wisdom filter, one based on solid epistemology, to see which of the new things that come up are true and which aren't.
—Martin Rowe covers test and measurement for EE Times and EDN. Contact him at [email protected] 
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