I realized that my respect for engineering stems from first, to prove an idea and then to iterate on it to near perfection.

I like to reflect this concept in two categories of people:

• the honer - given a proven path, optimize as many metrics as possible
• the innovator - crafting a new approach to a problem which can then be optimized.

This concept exists in all areas of engineering and I believe most prefer the honer, because it is much easier to do for the analytical minds. It’s straightforward to formulate goals and to create tangible steps when you know what the metrics to optimize are on a proven concept.

Because the innovator deals with uncertainty, the skills learnt increase adaptability and require a high degree of risk which not all personalities are comfortable with.

I felt inspired by the polymaths, the so-called renaissance man which did not have specialty in a single discipline but was widely learnt in many areas. This foundation allowed unique ways of approaching problems where others may only see it from a single dimension. They could take on both roles above with ease.

Sadly jobs seem to be going down the specialization path with no opportunity to be multi-disciplined unless you were the innovator and understood all the building blocks before they were optimized. Many modern teams are comprised of honers who were never given the chance to become the innovators.