here's life

I have been in class all week, learning the ins and outs of the CAD program my company uses. The current version has had many improvements since it was first implemented about 10 years ago. In the next room, students are learning the next version, which we hear is less mature, but easier to learn and use. Why are they paying me for three weeks to learn a program that is several years past it's prime? Inertia. There is so much data in this format that needs to be maintained, and so many expensive computers that run it, they can't afford to make a switch over...yet. They say they'll make the change in a year and a half, but they have been saying that for a while. And as I get better at the program, I see that it is not as hard to use as it first seemed, and is actualy pretty powerful for what it was designed to do.

However, since the advent of newer, better and cheaper CAD systems, nearly anybody can try out their ideas for the configuration feasibilitiy using a CAD program and test if their designs are sound structuraly using an FEA program. And for number crunching, they could just write their own scripts. And when they are ready to move into the physical, materials are much more sophisticated and much cheaper than they were 25 years ago. And if you need computer control, there is so much more to be had. For example, this on-going robotics project started in 1967 and had various ranges of success over the next 20 years. In the early 80's they got carbon fiber, now easily had by every design team. Their computing systems also progressed over the years, giving them the ability to test out designs before they built them. Often, the difference betweeen a working and non-working design is just a few variables. Which can easily be "brute forced", using today's computing power to cut-and-try until a solution is found. There might not be more ideas surfacing now than 25 years ago, but the good ones are easier to pluck from the haystack of bad ideas.
So, go out and make the world a better place! Don't wait for the big companies to do it for you, they have too much legacy baggage to take advantages of all the advances of the current technology and infrastructure.