Engineering for Fun

One of the first things I learned in engineering school is that there is always more than one way to solve a problem. In school we always looked for the most efficient way as that is generally considered the best solution. Yesterday I saw a comic strip that showed a young boy skipping stones across a pond. You could also see his idea of how he could use a playground slide to skip himself across several wading pools. That is a fun engineering solution. Sure it may not work, but it looked like a very fun idea and brought a smile to my face. Now I am wondering if I missed something in my engineering classes and instead of looking for the efficient solution, I should have been looking for the fun one.

There is a video on YouTube that shows the fun way to remove a tree stump. It takes forever as you effectively burn it out of your yard and that takes several days, if not weeks. The creator of the video is right though, it is the fun way to remove a tree stump.

Perhaps the idea of engineering for fun is where Rube Goldberg got his ideas for elaborate devices he drew in his comic strips. There are now competitions around the world to see who can create the most fun contraption in his honor. Who says engineers are boring nerds that don't know how to have fun?

For most of the projects at work, I will need to continue to find the most efficient way of solving the problem, however, I also want to start thinking about fun solutions. My guess is that a chuckle or two will be the only benefit of this new way of thinking. My hope is that one or two "fun" solutions make it into production. If that is the case, I'll be sure to post about it.