One thing I have noticed about IBM Engineers is that they all love to stare at the construction work being done right outside our building, at all times of the day you will see one or two people looking at the tractors and the big machinery doing their thing, they just stand there in a deep trance like there was some magic to it.

Must be that engineers love their job so much that they like to see machines doing work, they see the world as one engineered product after the next, you see, for each tractor there is a team of engineers that figured out how to make a bunch of metal parts DO SOMETHING USEFUL, they designed it. There's nothing better than seeing the product of one's work doing what was intended to do. Writing code brings that kind of satisfaction. You get to play God, to create new things. A technitian just reads the manual and does what's in the book, but an Engineer creates something brand new, there are no clear steps, no failsafe manual that tells you how to do what needs to be done, Just your undertanding of the system, Logic, some Programming languages, your past expirence and your Brain... Yes I know, I am a geek, but I'm loving it. One of the things I like about this company is their motto:
THINK. It could not be any better. and it applies to life outside of work too.

The other explanation is that they are simply bored and staring at the construction is just an excuse for staying out of the cubicle a little longer.

-J.V.