I started out on an engineering track and still dabble as a hobbyist. I then got into business and somehow ended up as an economist. Working with people in at my job and studying people in my job, I have learned that the engineer in me consistently denies the realities of human nature. I want other people to be programmable and they aren't. They barley listen. let alone execute code.

. So when you say, "as engineers we see those as solvable problems", I feel you loud and clear.From an engineering perspective, the problems are very solvable. From a social scientist perspective, they an intractable. There are so many places where engineers could be wrong in their calculations and designs and controls that it is just not worth the risk. What if we bury the waste under the ocean a volcano forms there in 1000 years that no one saw coming? There are so many opportunities for something to go wrong and the risks are horrible.

I do not know what you all know about Chernobyl, but a friend of mine to a class at the Univ of Wash from a guy that spent a great deal of time in the area. I won't go into to detail, but those stories are still the worst things that I have ever heard in my life. As Vonnegut would, fates worse than death indeed.

So I posit this all with the fact that there are several other options: negawatts, solar, wind, etc. They require more finesse, but as an Engineer, I see all their problems as solvable.

is: Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership (Paperback) by Linda A. Hill It's a great book because it follows what happened to others in your position: performers who become managers. There are no holy principles of management that waste your time. Instead, it helps you understand what the transition is all about: instead of you doing the work, you are going to need get the work done through others. It is also easy to read after a long day of work