Quote:
Originally Posted by Formerly Famous
So this year I just KNEW that our robot would be over weight. It always is. But after 5 weeks... The only thing I could still come up with was drilling holes. We needed everything to much. About 2 hours after getting it out of the bag, it hit me. Within 30 seconds I designed the kicker to work with 2 pistons instead of 3. We weighed ourselves, 2 pounds over.  A lot less than I expected. Pulled off a piston, 119! Something that I just KNEW would be impossible, was fixed by simply looking at it with a fresh mind.
Another thing I would say is in the design. Does anyone else have times when they sit there for hours thinking about something and how to fix this one little problem, and then someone walks in and tells you the solution? I know that has happened to me many times. I am always shocked at how simple an impossible solution is.
-Rion |
You have brought up two great tools for engineers. A fresh mind and fresh eyes. It is possible to work on a problem too hard. Take a break. Work on some other aspect of the project, or just get some sleep. The engineering mind seems to have a background task that is working on problems without the conscious mind knowing about it. I kept a pad and pencil by my bed to write down solutions that would come to me in my sleep. Often going back to a problem a few hours or day later somehow makes the problem easier. Fresh eyes come in two parts. Often just articulating the problem seems to generate the solution. I don't know how many times I would be halfway through explaining a problem when I'd say "Never mind, I know what to do". Or when I was done, the other engineer would say "Can't you just ....."
Somewhat on the same topic, 40+ years ago my first engineering boss told me that "Most great inventions come from people that are too dumb to know that it can't be done".