This is what I personally think, and given that I worked in a more serious part of tech industry than running diary websites for a big part of my career, I think my though has truth credit to it.
Though, my career in serious engineering companies is not that long, I don't see a thing in any serious piece of engineering that ever qualifies as non-obvious. And under serious pieces of engineering I mean things from SCADA for Baosteel's main plant, to widgets for Airbus and EADS.
Nor I ever qualify this engineering work as very laborious. Doing "Big engineering" is more about bureaucratic and legal work than doing actual engineering from my own personal impressions.
Moreover, whenever "big engineering" is involved, and you hear names like WW groups, EADS, Siemens, Rheinmetal, you don't "innovate." The cost of screwup is so high, that there are even special people employed to watch that nobody dares to replace existing working parts with their "innovation." In general, when doing such work, you want to use most proven and conservative designs over any improvements.
Though, my career in serious engineering companies is not that long, I don't see a thing in any serious piece of engineering that ever qualifies as non-obvious. And under serious pieces of engineering I mean things from SCADA for Baosteel's main plant, to widgets for Airbus and EADS.
Nor I ever qualify this engineering work as very laborious. Doing "Big engineering" is more about bureaucratic and legal work than doing actual engineering from my own personal impressions.
Moreover, whenever "big engineering" is involved, and you hear names like WW groups, EADS, Siemens, Rheinmetal, you don't "innovate." The cost of screwup is so high, that there are even special people employed to watch that nobody dares to replace existing working parts with their "innovation." In general, when doing such work, you want to use most proven and conservative designs over any improvements.