The "good engineers are right a lot" is true, but it feels bad to say.

Why does it feel bad? Everyone wants to be right more often. All else equal, we'd like the people we work with to be right more often than wrong.

Here are some statements that don't feel as bad to say for some reason (not endorsing these per se, just they dont feel bad to say):

- good engineers are pleasant to work with

- good engineers are practical

- good engineers know a lot about engineering

Here are some statements that start to feel weirder to me:

- good engineers have high IQs

- good engineers are uncompromising

- good engineers know that lisp is the best language

- good engineers are right a lot

Maybe it has something to do with the ratio of how easy it is to verify the property, with how hard it is to embody the property once you hear about it.

Having a high IQ is kinda hard to verify directly. If that was a widely known phrase, everyone would just claim they had the high IQ. Same with being right: you can just claim you're right a lot. Being uncompromising is easy, just don't compromise.

Being practical is hard to do, but maybe is easy to claim? Maybe it's easier to verify if someone is practical than if someone is smart. Not sure. Being pleasant tonwork woth is hard work maybe? Maybe there's just a social confluence bias.