Armchair Engineer 

A person, often who does not hold an engineering degree or does, but has no actual experience with real engineering and ended up in a different technical field. This person can often be found on facebook or other social media platforms criticizing engineers for apparent problems with consumer or other products that they believe could be better. This person is quick to point out obvious faults because they believe engineering is simply envisioning a perfect product, and that makes it happen. They have no understanding/experience with the cost, management, cross-functional team collaboration, qualification requirements, documentation requirements, problems of similar parts, legal regulations, interchangeability with other parts or assemblies, material properties and compatibility, corrosion resistance, lead times of parts and material, production costs, service restrictions and costs, low rate of failures pertaining to the one they unfortunately experienced, or many other constraints that limit the "perfect solution" that they envision.

Armchair engineer: "Its 2024, surely engineers could design a car that never rusts or corrodes, they just want you to pay for repairs and replacements to ensure they maintain profits". Engineer:" Sure, there are materials available to prevent corrosion for a longer time if you want to pay 6-8 figures for your vehicle that gets you A to B and costs 5-7 figures to repair and still requires yearly maintenance to avoid that condition. No rust or other corrosion on cars for the life of the car is a great idea though, not sure why us engineers didnt think of that, where did you get your armchair engineering degree? We should probably go back to your school."

Armchair Engineer by beer08 July 30, 2024

armchair engineers 

These are typically 24 year old yuppie wannabees straight out of college. It takes about 18 months to get them to the point where they can actually do something constructive for the company. Once this happens, they get a stupid title with the word "worldwide director" or something, and from this point on will not put their hands on anything tangible, like a product.

"Man, that Jeremy is an egghead. We finally get him to the point where he can walk without hand-holding and he gets a position with the armchair engineers."

armchair engineers by running out of patience March 15, 2008