[continued from previous message]   
      
   someone to define a product, you will likely miss designing something   
   even better.   
      
      
   >   
   >> Maybe the best design is in the other direction.   
   >   
   >A goal is a destination, not a route-map   
   >   
   >> Our policy is to always stay confused for a while early in a design,   
   >> and not latch on the the first idea (probably in a textbook) that   
   >> might work.   
   >   
   >Being confident about where you are need to end up but relaxed about how   
   >you are going to get there isn't being confused - just being open-minded.   
      
   Confused is even better. Most engineers and even more managers are   
   uncomfortable with uncertainty and want to lock down a design as soon   
   as they can so they can fire up some project management software and   
   make budgets and schedules with colorful presentation graphics.   
      
   It takes a lot of confidence to deliberately stay confused.   
      
   That line belongs in my collection of great quotes.   
      
      
   >   
   >> The techniques of exploring the greater solution space can be taught,   
   >> but not simply explained. Like I can't tell you how to play tennis in   
   >> an email.   
   >   
   >You aren't great at explanation at the best of times. Your capacity to   
   >explain what you have done isn't great, and your incapacity to lead the   
   >reader through the solutions spaces that you claim to have explored does   
   >suggest that you do more flailing about than exploring.   
      
   As I said, it can't be simply explained or taught in textbook form. It   
   has too be done.   
      
   I think academic EE education is fundamentally hostile to idea   
   generation.   
      
      
   John Larkin   
   Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center   
   Lunatic Fringe Electronics   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)