Geordi: but the book says..
Scotty: forget it Laddie, I wrote the bloody thing.
That was kinda the cool thing about Geordi ... he kinda epitomised the competence porn vibe for me ... turned the miracle worker thing into a "professional that's just the job that I'm rather qualified and prepared for and lucky to be doing something I like" thing.
There is a scene in the fourth season when Tucker is the chief engineer of the Colombia and he is calling for tolerances in the dilithium crystals to be tighter than spec. When an junior engineer challenges him by saying the spec says a higher number, he pushes back saying that he's actually been running the warp engine and he knows better.
I've been in situations like that at work. I always ask what the senior worker's reason for doing things different is, because then I've benefitted from their experience too
Thus his caption. Although partially it's his behavior as well. Even if there was a book I doubt he'd often look through it.
