[hedora]

I think the analogy to mechanical engineering is something like this:

A seasoned engineer notices that everyone is only building suspension bridges all of a sudden.

They point out that you can span a stream with some bricks or rocks and a bit of mortar, and are ridiculed.

Next, they build a highway overpass out of concrete pylons, and stress test it to 10x the necessary engineering load, and point out it cost 10% as much as a typical contemporary suspension bridge. That’s this article.

[kragen]

Or vice versa: they notice that everyone is only building concrete bridges all of a sudden, disregarding the traditional and much cheaper approach of hanging boards under some rope handrails; upon being ridiculed, they build a suspension bridge across a river for 10% as much as a concrete bridge.