The 30 courses
Ordered by zone of the tree, from the roots to the crown. Within each zone, by stage.
Filter by stage
Roots
The base from secondary school: what holds up everything else.
- Mathematics, from basic to complexSet up a problem with equations and estimate its order of magnitude before calculating: powers of ten, estimation and three checks to tell whether a result makes senseStage: Novice16 pages8 exercises5 USD
- Measuring and recordingQuantity, unit, instrument and tolerance: how much a measurement can vary and how to record it so that someone else can check itStage: Novice15 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Owning your partThe small task done well, the truth about your progress and your own mistake: how to answer for your part within a groupStage: Novice15 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Physics and chemistryMechanics, energy, electricity, materials and the chemistry of a battery: a law with its conditions predicts a result, and the measurement confirms or corrects itStage: Novice15 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Reading in depth and writingRead a difficult text until you can explain it, and write a short report that someone else uses without asking youStage: Novice16 pages8 exercises5 USD
- Sleeping, training and getting checkedHow many hours to sleep for your age, how to raise the load without getting injured and when a discomfort needs to be checkedStage: Novice17 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Programming and using dataVariables, decisions, loops and functions in Python to calculate, simulate and analyze data, with a program that someone else runs and gets the same resultStage: Advanced beginner22 pages8 exercises5 USD
Trunk
The engineering method, shared by every specialization.
- Designing to requirementsFunction, requirement, constraint and specification: write down what your design has to meet, and how you will check it, before you draw itStage: Advanced beginner18 pages8 exercises5 USD
- Engineering fundamentalsMechanics, circuits, materials, thermodynamics and fluids with the same three pieces (a balance, a material law and written assumptions) to solve a problem nobody showed youStage: Advanced beginner18 pages10 exercises5 USD
- Experimenting with methodHypothesis, one variable at a time, plan, repetitions and analysis: how to separate the cause from everything else that changes and draw conclusions from the dataStage: Advanced beginner15 pages8 exercises5 USD
- Modelling and analysingFraming a problem, writing down a model's assumptions, comparing it with a measurement and saying when it stops holdingStage: Advanced beginner16 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Reading and making technical drawingsViews, dimensions and scale: the design documentation someone else uses to make your part without asking youStage: Advanced beginner17 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Anticipating failure and marginFailure modes, design load, margin of safety, test and proof test: how what you design can fail and how much it has to spare before it failsStage: Competent18 pages10 exercises5 USD
- Tools and their limitsCalculator, spreadsheet, simulator and multimeter: what they assume, where they stop working and how to check their result with an estimate made by handStage: Competent16 pages8 exercises5 USD
Branches
The specialization you practise, with electrical as the example.
- Choosing and studying a specializationWhat a specialization adds to the fundamentals, how to choose one with data, and how to frame an electrical problem that a generalist calculates well and frames badlyStage: Advanced beginner19 pages10 exercises5 USD
- Electrical: energy and powerWhy a service connection is chosen by power and the meter counts energy: units, current, heat, the rule in Chile's RIC N°01 technical code and what a meter recordsStage: Competent17 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Local standards and regulationRegulation, technical specifications and what is in force in Chile: how to find the requirement that applies to an electrical job and check, with measurements, that it is metStage: Competent20 pages8 exercises5 USD
- Operating, maintaining and documentingChecking before energizing, fatigue and useful life, three ways to maintain, and how to write a procedure that another person follows to get the same result as youStage: Competent19 pages9 exercises5 USD
Crown
Professional practice: what the degree does not certify.
- Communicating to any audienceThe same technical decision, told without jargon to the person who approves it and in full detail to the person who checks itStage: Competent18 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Coordinating without being the bossA goal anyone can check, parts with an owner and a date, written agreements and follow-up before the deadline: how to get others to deliver on time without giving them ordersStage: Competent17 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Ethics and responsibilityCodes of ethics, public safety and the law: when to stop a job, how to explain it in writing and what your signature meansStage: Competent20 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Impact on Society and the EnvironmentStakeholders; impacts on health, safety, the economy, the law and the environment; life cycle cost and emissions: who wins, who loses and what footprint a design leavesStage: Competent19 pages8 exercises5 USD
- Schedule, cost and economic decisionsSequence, critical path and float; direct cost, waste and margin; and how to decide by looking at time and cost togetherStage: Competent19 pages10 exercises5 USD
- Answering for work in your chargeYour own judgment, your signature and answering in person: what it means to be in charge of a job, how to define success before you start, and how to answer for what others didStage: Proficient17 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Evaluating resultsCompare what was achieved with what was specified, find out why it deviated and write down what to change, without looking for someone to blameStage: Proficient20 pages10 exercises5 USD
- Judgement with incomplete informationChoosing between alternatives with conflicting requirements and missing data: stating your assumptions, working out what would change the decision and knowing which information to look for firstStage: Proficient19 pages10 exercises5 USD
- Lifelong learningWhen a problem goes beyond what you know: write the exact question, find and judge the source, read it with its conditions, apply it, and keep a yearly plan with a logStage: Proficient19 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Cases outside the standardProve that the standard does not cover the case, rebuild the physics the standard summarises, extend the method with written assumptions and defend it before peersStage: Expert18 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Developing othersShow what you think, ask instead of answering, and withdraw support until the other person can do it on their ownStage: Expert18 pages9 exercises5 USD
- Understanding the problem firstWhat problem you are solving, for whom and within what limits: the definition you write, and that the client recognizes as their own, before proposing a solutionStage: Expert21 pages8 exercises5 USD