[rellic]

I’m a retired engineer.
“Apologies if this sounds like I am insulting you (I promise that is not my intention), but I seems you haven’t been in the industry very long.”
True, I was also an electronics engineer. I worked for twenty years at Boeing, and Ten years at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
I designed systems that involved both Hardware and software.
Most all of it Science oriented Prototype “stuff”. Nothing for commercial sales. I was one of those real “scientists” that they keep hidden away.
We cost money, wrote papers, but never made a tangible profit, we just facilitated the company or institution in the pursuit of their goals.
The people I worked for thought I was worth that cost.
How else do you retire on acreage, with an ocean view,
in Hawaii, at age 55?
You are a very good designer.

[SecondAmendment]

> True, I was also an electronics engineer. I worked for twenty years at Boeing, and Ten years at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. ... The people I worked for thought I was worth that cost. How else do you retire on acreage, with an ocean view, in Hawaii, at age 55?

You are a lucky man, it sounds like you really enjoyed your career, and you were well rewarded for it, so you are way smarter than myself.