The broad broad (but shallow) perspective on physical phenomena fostered by engineering tends to give engineers a good appreciation of science, but the deep (but narrow) perspective fostered by science tends to give scientists a poor appreciation of engineering. Note that "deep but narrow" somehow sounds superior (to my culture-tuned ear, at least) to "broad but shallow". Engineering knowledge can be deep, too, but it is of a different kind.

the best reply to that I can think to off the top of my head is a Heinlein quote

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Hit the nail on the head, there.  Narrow but deep is the ONLY thing that is respected in academia, humanities just as much as the sciences.  

the engineers at qinghua university were some of the only cadres who didn't get mixed up in the political upheaval of the cultural revolution. traditionally, it was grads in politics and history from the more activist student body at beida that formed the ruling class, but th3ese days, it's raining engineers.