Captain Ahab,
very well said, and I'm re-inserting a quote I heard from a very humble sourse:
"As an engineer, I don't class myself as being an expert as the more I know the more I know I don't know but I would say I know more than most people, even the people that think they know more. I am far from being clever but I am good at what I do and tend to look at stuff from a different perspective than other people I work with."
As an engineer myself, we're all there to make our management happy. Cost, Quality, Schedule (you can only pick two out of those 3)
I provide solution A, solution B, and as a fall back, and solution C as just a wild idea.
"Dear Brain Dead Political Posturing Management dood.......... Mr Boss in the big chair feeding me salary growth" , YOU decide the final solution, as he's sitting in the big chair, if the "the chart" ain't happy, nobodies happy.
I just make things work. I've seen MILLIONS of dollars ($5-6 mil) wasted on a 747 moving line (yes at an 1/4" an hour) yawn, , that all revolved around a Subaru rear differential that someone dumpster dived and found in their garage...............moonshine shops have their place, defining specification control documents, firm requirements, and exit criteria are a must. Otherwise you're just pissssssing money away while the Lean 5S circus is in town for a couple months, then they up-pitch their tent and move on to the next bulging budget............all with good intentions, but then a turd is left in someone's yard to be shoveled up and tossed.
Simple. Define Requirements. Meet those requirements. Otherwise you're just whacking off to a Farrah Faucet poster that ain't going to happen in real life.
There is Farmer engineering and that has it's place...........on a farm............in industry, those silly little things called state and federal laws, NEC, UL, NFPA, Building codes, ASME, are why engineers, well, went to school and can do math instead of using a guy that once installed a car stereo in high school using scotch tape on wiring to do your multi million dollar design and install.
Happy to provide Farrah Fawcett images to the poser engineers:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Farrah+Fawcett+images&hl=en&qscrl=1&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS416US416&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=YlTQUpjTMc3DoASx0oGgCg&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=930