engineering “Survivor”

If I had to choose a person to be with on the TV show ‘Survivor’, it would be an engineer.  I was hoping that after all these years, perhaps by hanging around them, I could learn to think like them.  In actuality, I do think in a similar process as they – logically and analytically – but I apply that to human behavior instead of machines/technology.  I am able to read the ‘Human Operating System’ of each individual fairly quickly, but when it comes to putting, say, a piece of equipment back together, I just don’t get it.  A part of me wonders if it’s because I have no interest (don’t tell anybody) in the equipment (be it as simple as a flashlight or more complex as in a washing machine or computer); or, is it because: I’ve had limited exposure in my first 30 years of life (though my father and 2 brothers built a ham radio and tackled similar projects), I was either never interested, or because I was so much younger than my brothers (and a pain-in-the-butt), maybe I wasn’t invited to participate.

The result is that both my interest and brain shut down during highly technical engineering discussions, despite years and years of trying to absorb the information (and hoping that when I attend a robotic conference, that I can understand 0.00001 percent).