Do you feel it’s hard being an engineer seen as so much has already been made and perfected? Or do you like the

Question: Do you feel it's hard being an engineer seen as so much has already been made and perfected? Or do you like the chalenge?
- Keywords:
  challenge,
  difficult,
  engineer,
  hard
Asked by fedge to Alex, Chris, Harriet, Jed, Ken on 13 Mar 2012.
- Jed Ramsay answered on 12 Mar 2012:
  
  Well things are also always falling down and needing to be rebuilt!
  
  In my job I work to make improvements to the River Thames for people to enjoy the river by walking, boating, canoeing or whatever else they like to do. So there’s always more we can do to make it better. I also have projects to improve rivers for wildlife or to reduce flooding – and there’s always plenty more we can do here too!
- Ken Gibbs answered on 12 Mar 2012:
  
  @fedge: Jed has said it so well and I will say it differently – there is nothing that lasts for ever. Everything wears out – even a Rolls Royce.
  
  We had an interesting dilemma in Bangladesh. They used to use a very strong handpump for areas where water had to be lifted more than 7 metres and it didn’t break down very often; but when it did, they required a mobile workshop to come and take everything out to repair it. This would often take three months before the pump would be repaired. Have you ever tried to do without drinking water for three months ? Besides, those pumps were VERY expensive, so I and another engineer felt that this type of pump was not perfect and set about designing and developing a much less expensive pump which would break down rather more often than the original pump, but could be back up and working fully within 30 minutes using only the water collectors. See my profile for a photo of the Tara pump. It’s not a perfect solution but it works for those communities.
  
  So, I don’t think it’s hard being an engineer as there are so many things that need improvement, and it’s amazing what a little common sense can do.
- Alexander Zacheshigriva answered on 13 Mar 2012:
  
  There is definitely plenty more work for engineers on this planet. Yes, a lot of the things have been invented and many solutions are very mature (i.e. they do not change a lot), however you still need an engineer to find the right one and implement it. In the same way as you need a doctor to see a patient, although they rely on knowledge previously acquired by other doctors and do not re-invent the wheel.
  
  I will agree that a few centuries ago engineers had to be very creative and kept inventing stuff to solve problems, nowadays many engineers (myself included) can not claim they have invented something, however we do solve a unique problems and find best solutions based on knowledge and intuition. And there is still a lot of research going on, albeit it may be smaller steps.
- Harriet Fletcher answered on 13 Mar 2012:
  
  It seems like the guys have got this answered so well it’s difficult for me to add much but I wanted to chip in because it’s such a good question. The goalposts keep moving because the world moves on so fast. What was the perfect solution 30 years ago may well not be relevant in todays world where we understand the environmental impact of things so much more.
  A good example of this is odour treatment, nobody much complained that a sewage works smells in the 80s but now huge investments are being made to treat odour from sewage works, partly because peoples expectations have changed and partly because houses are now built so much closer to treatment works as land is getting filled up.