Feb 1, 2010

The Right Brain

Hard to believe based on my cartoons, but I don't buy into the stereotype of the nerdy, pencil-neck, number-crunching, left-brained engineer with thick glasses and no creativity or social skills. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy poking fun at them and others in the construction industry. 

Though I've met a few engineers who resemble the stereotype, the best engineers I know have a healthy balance of both left-brained technical savvy and right-brained creativity.
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My own brain scan is in Figure 4 above for reference.

The Right Brain was "born" in February 1999 with the first issue of Wright Engineers' monthly news.  Each issue since has included a construction industry-related cartoon.
If the Right Brain was born in 1999, then it was conceived nearly 25 years earlier when a much younger "Right Brain-In-Training" sketched cartoon athletes he called "Verbs" (men of action inspired by the PBS TV show The Electric Company.)  The drawing above by the 9-year-old Right Brain shows a Verb doing what Verbs do--winning and making it look easy.


The young Right Brain (above in black shirt) poses, toolbox in hand, with his father, Leo, a carpenter and general contractor, and younger brother, Darin (now a chiropractor).



A slightly older Right Brain demonstrates the entry feature of one of his many prototype engineering projects.