Vision, Science & Engineering: My Paradigm

There are three forces that allow paradigm-shifting technologies, ideas and movements to take shape, and in turn shape the world around them, pushing us to live our lives in a completely new way. Those forces are science (powered by the magical feeling that one experiences after making a discovery), engineering (fuelled by the satisfaction that comes after building something that works) and vision (supercharged by a rush of adrenaline that fills your body while getting lost in dreaming up the future). These forces are vital to the growth and progress of humanity, and they define and differentiate us from other living species. Each one of these forces individually is so strong that millions of the smartest people devote their lives to the professions that have grown around them. 

But each one of them suffers from drawbacks that significantly limit their potential impact. Once we put these forces together, consciously using the best each has to offer, and if knowingly avoid their drawbacks, we can make the most impactful innovations. Imagine if you will, the creation of a system in which these forces are combined. Imagine something that uses those forces to be fast, agile, practical, and leading-edge, and only produces revolutionary products, which in turn are leaps in human progress.

I have dedicated the past few years of my career to theorising and designing and building that system. It’s become more than a passion, it’s almost my north star; to work within the scientific method, combined with the practicalities and real-world applications of engineering, powered and guided by a vision of the future that can give them a cohesive roadmap. A three-pronged approach that can have an immense impact on the world.

The traditional centres of science, Universities, are research-focused, and the development of new information, new knowledge and new discoveries remain at the core of their work and purpose. Their outcome is valuable in helping us to understand how various components of the universe work. It benefits all, although that benefit is not immediate or neccesarly implementable. It serves a vital purpose in advancing science, but it does so with limited practical application, to a point where the word ‘academic’ is sometimes used as a synonym for ‘lacking practicality’; for example, when we talk colloquially about an academic discussion, we mean a discussion that has limited immediate effect on the real world.

On the other side, because the impact of the scientific work is not immediate, Universities naturally use donations or governmental financial support as the major source of funding for their research activities, which typically comes with requirements around publishing their discoveries, which in turn puts more distraction into academic's works and incentivises them to work on topics that have higher chances of publication.

The real value, the gold that science contributes is in the scientific methodologies, which are brilliant and entirely vital. 

The scientific method, when implemented properly, eliminates bias by removing the person from the process. Scientists begin with a hypothesis, and through research and experimentation, they move from that hypothesis to facts and findings, discarding underlying assumptions in the process, one by one. It’s an invaluable approach that allows actual learnings to be shared independently and with a relatively small amount of partiality or influence. In an ideal world, that would create a path to practical implementation.

Scientists aren’t implementation specialists. They’re not engineers, nor do they possess the ability or the inclination to think like engineers. 

Engineers are makers and builders. Engineers are craftspeople. Engineers are the ones who implement the technology. Every city, everything we use, everything we touch, whether physical or digital, is the output of engineers who are dedicated to their roles and have an urge to create. They play an important part in our society because without their work, we would stagnate. The entire spectrum of human advancement has depended on the completion of their work, giving us homes and tools that empower and enable our lives. 

But engineers don’t think methodologically like scientists, nor do they possess a strong visionary sense of the future and its accompanying possibilities.

Engineers and engineering firms are not driven by generating new knowledge or innovations. They’re conservative, partially due to the risk factors involved in their work, which can endanger profitability if their work isn’t efficient, expected and standard, or the lives of the people who rely on their outcomes, if their work is experimental or less proven. 

If an engineer takes a risk on an innovative technology or idea, their responsibility is massive. If a safety system around a reactor hasn’t been built properly it could explode and destroy infrastructure and lives - the ROI on innovation is too low for it to be worthwhile. Ultimately the engineering firms who are considered to be the best and the most successful are the ones who do standard work, efficiently, to meet the scope of their clients. 

They may draw on scientific research - but they work in a proven way, within codes of standards, to implement that research in a practical and risk-minimising way.

There is a much smaller subset of people who don’t have as much scientific or engineering skill, but are gifted instead with the unique ability of seeing a possible future, a future that is needed to be built.

These are the people who are visionary in their work. Their role is in imagining the future. They follow threads of research and ideas to entirely new worlds.

The downside of that? 

They often lack the understanding of what it takes to realise that vision, and as it develops, they tend to change direction to follow the thread to wherever it leads. They know intuitively where they need to be, but they can't necessarily create a practical roadmap to get there. The future that the visionary sees won’t build itself, but the visionary component is necessary to act as the guiding force. 

With the direction and influence of visionaries, we are able to apply engineering techniques on top of scientific methodologies to build an actual future. The vision is proven through scientific research, and the research, without biases and with a reliance on the facts as a solid ground, can be driven through engineering to craft products, platforms and practical realisations of ground-breaking technology. 

This is how I work. It’s how we work at my company, APS. We bring on board and work with scientists in-house, in tandem with engineers in-house, driven by visionary ideas and a clear picture of the endpoints that we’re running towards.

I've designed a matrix that demonstrates the necessary relationship between science, engineering and entrepreneurship. This is my holy triangle.