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Is there an engineer in your life? A techie who sometimes speaks a language you don't understand? I'm not talking about jargon, like bytes and routers and malware. I'm talking about how they don't seem to understand the plain English the rest of us use, how they give us strange looks in the middle of a conversation, how they ask questions like "Why are you driving in this lane?"

As the number of academic and professional degrees awarded in all fields of engineering continues to grow, it's hard to escape the techies that surround us, both at home and at the office.

We wouldn't want to live without them, those special, lovable, smart, helpful people. We laugh at engineer jokes:
The optimist says the glass is half full; the pessimist says it's half empty. What does the engineer say?
Answer: why is there twice as much glass as there needs to be?

Funny, but not when it's your engineer and he or she appears to be hassling you over the size of glass you chose or the route you're taking to the mall. When it comes to social and personal interactions, the engineer's skills and training often work against him. "How to Live with an Engineer" is a blueprint for understanding the slightly peculiar traits of the species. The goal is to use the peculiarities to our advantage, to improve communication and common decision-making at all levels, from which paper plates are best, to how to save the planet.

The key is to understand how engineers were trained and how their training affects their everyday interactions.

Three characteristics stand out in communications with engineers: they're troubleshooters, they love numbers, and they love to argue. Understand these traits and never again be frustrated in an argument with a techie.

This book is the result of decades of studying and teaching technical subjects, working with scientific and technical professionals, topped off with more than three decades of marriage to one special techie. "How to Live with an Engineer" provides insight and strategies for dealing with the techies we care about.

The payoff is improved communications and a happier, more productive environment at home or with the IT department at work.