Real-Life Decision Making
You're redesigning an autonomous ocean sensor. That is, you're fixing up the design of an old robot that gathers data off the ocean floor.
The old robot has been working on a hard-surfaced ocean bottom. However, you are now working in an area that has an extremely muddy floor. The old robot keeps getting stuck in the mud -- its legs usually break as it tries to pull through the heavy material.
You have been puzzling over what to do for a long time, but today you've finally come up with an answer. You're going to put a new component in its legs that will make them much stronger.
The only problem is that the new component has a very expensive, very exotic gear thread. The company you work for is hoping you'll produce a robot they can manufacture cheaply, because they want to sell it to other oceanographers and researchers. They also don't like to use expensive robots in the ocean because they tend to get lost in the murky depths. Would you want to spend a lot of money on a robot that might not return to the lab?
You can't decide what to do because you're impressed with the way the new robot works, but are worried that the company will be upset with the price tag. Do you go ahead with your expensive design?
Or do you go back to the drawing board and try to find a new way to fix the weak robot legs?
What are you going to do?