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[Rick Moen]

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 10:17 AM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
> "They made it. At the end of the five week
> period the engineering team had developed a
> satisfactory working prototype."

See, the great thing about the engineers being a team of specifically
_engineers_ is that they would have had relevant practical experience.
Even having not built the widget in question before, they knew the
materials and tools, what those can and cannot do, and to fruitfully
proceed.  They weren't worried about the three weeks of discussion
because they knew how to focus on relevant concerns and use that time
productively.  They knew relevant from irrelevant concerns, relevant
from irrelevant tools, wacky methods from ones that work.
Metaphorically, they knew why you don't use USB sticks for backup.
And the way they got that practical understanding, that grasp of tools
and materials, that real-world understanding, is by getting their
hands dirty.

If you haven't bothered to get your hands dirty, don't understand your
tools and materials, lack real-world experience, your planning is
rather likely to be cuckoo.  You are likely to do cargo-cult
engineering, to borrow Richard Feynman's metaphor:
http://neurotheory.columbia.edu/%7Eken/cargo_cult.html

Your metaphorical three weeks are not likely to be the pondering of a
team of seasoned engineers.  It's likely to be the same old
bikeshedding.

But anyway, you heard my advice.  Want to keep doing the opposite,
fine.  Good luck.