[singpilot]

Remember that old saying about the difference in pay between the Porsche mechanic (Technician if over $90./hr) and the heart surgeon?

The heart surgeon was complaining about the cost of repairing his Boxster. He said he thought the mechanics' hourly rate was atrocious. The Mech responds, "Well, how much an hour do you charge?" The heart surgeon responds "$2800. an hour." The mech says he thinks that is outrageous, in that they both do roughly the same thing. That they open stuff up, fix it, and put it back together.

The heart surgeon ends the conversation with "But I do my work while the engine is running"



My recently departed uncle was the chief design engineer on the fuel delivery turbopump on the F1 engine that took Apollos to the moon. He went on to design and test the restartable engines for the space shuttle. After he retired, Rocketdyne asked him to come back and do the upgrades. His only condition was that he wanted to design his own business card on Rocketdyne's blank.

He put his name, and under it, instead of the technically perfect title that Rocketdyne wanted, was "Rocket Scientist".