Dan,

You ain't no engineer - are you? :-) You have stereotyped engineers
very well, but very incorrectly. I will concede that, maybe in large
organizations, there is such a division of tasks that the actual
engineering of a product starts after a hand-off from a designer. As
an engineer for the last 21 years in manufacturing, advanced
manufacturing, production, product development, product design and
product realization, I can tell you that there are many extremely
creative engineers who range from awesome design to hardcore nuts and
bolts.

A great design serves many customers: end user, manufacturing
personnel, service personnel, the environment, and purchasers. The
engineers who currently work for me are cognizant of all of their
constituents.

Invention is a different animal. As you say, invention is the process
of coming up with a completely original idea - practical or not. This
is difficult for a lot of people because too many of us tend to think
of invention as ONLY hugely novel ideas. Invention can be subtle
creativity too. With my team, I struggle to get my people to realize
that even small ideas are worthy of notice.

Joe Fleming - San Diego



On Aug 27, 8:04 pm, (Arch) wrote:
Hi Dan, Thanks for your response and for getting what I was trying to
say even tho I had it wrong. I can see that you are right. As I read
your post I see my mistake. I was thinking in terms of the the ole
timer's bowl being unique and therefore his conceiving it would be
invention.

As I described it, it was not unique. It was just a very different
popcorn bowl or art work. The first bowl ever conceived was the
invention, what the old timer did was design. If I still have it wrong,
please explain further. TIA

Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter

http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings