E14 DIT Blog Post: The Missed Era of Designing Without Restraint

I put up a new post on the Element14 DIT blog talking about things I’ve missed out on and wanted to share it here.   I’m sure the older generation would approve!

…the part of our history that I look back at with the most envy is the engineering work completed from the period of the industrial revolution until the 1970s. These engineers were faced with one overriding design problem: make it work as best you can and make it last.  There was much less effort applied to designing for external factors.  For example, product safety, environmental concerns, low-cost off-shore competition, government regulations, and my most hated design constraint: company liability, were not as big of a concern for engineers working in the 1950’s.  Each design project (I am told) would be almost like a personal project – except one could do it all day for money!…

I go on to talk about how we are making the right choice by using the long-term understanding of our world to decide if what we are working towards will actually leave this world a better place, or just gussy it up for a few decades.

Why not take a break and read the whole article!?


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *