I do not believe in grand plans. All you need is a general idea of where you want to be, and steps to get there. The effort should be spent on details. The world is too complicated for them to be thought beforehand.

That's why I spent ten years building the house.

Engineering is the art of solving little problems without forgetting the final goal.

Too much effort spent on too abstract planning is a key mistake in many companies where the management has estranged from engineering.

That's what went wrong in Nokia when Ollila was followed by Kallasvuo.

You cannot manage the unexpected by denying its existence.

Gotta be flexible and able to recognize dead ends.

An example: the solution to the climate crisis needs the capability to transfer electricity ca. 3,000 kilometers with acceptable losses. Many non-engineers claim that this is an oversimplification, but that is only because they do not realize how much engineering that takes.