[jluetjen]

A different approach that I've found helpful sometimes is to just try to avoid the wrong decision. A for example, the question often comes up here on Pelican "What engine spec will give me the most HP?". That's a tough question to answer. A far easier approach is to avoid the bad configurations...
- Ensure adequate flow in and out of the engine.
- Make sure that the intake flow isn't too slow
- Make sure that you don't pick the wrong cam for your application
- Make sure that you don't have any obvious weaknesses in the bottom end which will shorten the engine's life -- for example spinning a 70.4 mm crank to 8500 RPM without the proper modifications. etc.

Once you've eliminated most or all of the "Bad" decisions, chances are the results will be OK. In the case of the engine example, if you avoid the bad configuration decisions listed above, chances are your engine will be right up there in the better half of the distribution.

If you can keep yourself in the top half of the class time after time in life, chances are you'll be doing OK.