Efficiency is one of the basic tenets of Engineering. Almost every problem can be reduced to "How can this system be made more efficient?" In real world system

Efficiency is one of the basic tenets of Engineering. Almost every problem can be reduced to "How can this system be made more efficient?" In real world systems you often have competing constraints. In construction if someone asked you to make a beam section more efficient you'd need to consider weight, cost, weld-ability, yield strength etc. All competing against each other. An effective engineer is someone who can see the whole picture of the system and where his design fits into it. Being able to make the most appropriate efficiency gains in areas where you get the greatest benefit. I've always considered a technically elegant solution to be something more novel - an approach that had never been considered before or consider and dismissed as unworkable in the past.