If you’re reading this here in Wired, you may have at least a passing familiarity with engineering or computer programming. Me, too: I once studied programming in college, hand-built and programmed a small 8080-based computer, and even wrote some Unix code at AT&T Bell Labs. I’m still no expert here; I just remember one key thing about the engineering mindset:

Know the difference between kludgy and elegant solutions.

Citation
John F. Duffy, Let’s Get Rid of Kludgy Patent Fixes and Define the Non Obvious, Wired (November 16, 2012).