Most modern graduates with engineering degrees are very
well-schooled in the use of this-or-that software, with which to conduct design analyses. They are no longer well-schooled in the
old-time by-hand methods that underlie most of those software packages. And I think that is a serious mistake in
their education!
Unless they know how to estimate by hand, then how do they know when the computer is
giving them nonsense, versus good
data? Further, how can they analyze a design for something entirely
new, whenever what they are trying to do
is outside the database that supported the development of their software? That is a recipe for bad answers from the
software! Good and bad answers from
software look exactly alike!
Those technical questions aside, there is also a cost-benefit
consideration! When trying to do
something new, the odds of success are
increased if you dream up a large number of candidate concepts, so that statistically the “right” one is
among your multitude.
You then have to screen that multitude of concepts down to
the one (or at most two) that might have the best chance of success. But,
you cannot afford to do real computer finite-element models and run
design analysis codes on all of them!
Why? Because computer-aided
design is definitely a nontrivial exercise requiring significant efforts to
execute!
But, if you are
well-schooled in the old by-hand analysis methods, and you are not a narrow one-specialty
type, you (or a small team) can
efficiently use those old methods to screen your multitude of concepts! Your results may be approximate, but they are “good enough” to tell the better
concepts from the bad ones!
These old-time methods require far fewer inputs, and in today’s world, take little time and effort to execute, assisted by programmable calculators and
spreadsheet software.
That is the cost-effective way to do new-product development
engineering, when you are going where no
one has gone before! Just as the
illustration says!
But it does require people who are competent in multiple
specialties, and who are well-schooled
and with significant experience, using
those old-time techniques! And that is
true of all engineering disciplines!
There are very few of us left, who are qualified to do that kind of work! I am one of those few. And I am over a decade past retirement age now!
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Posted to LinkedIn 9-12-2026
Posted to “exrocketman” 11-10-2026
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