The prevailing view of biological evolution is not unlike bricolage/pastiche/tinkering—in sharp contrast with rational engineering. Yet, different paths often lead to solutions that coincide or converge whether they emerge from naturally-occurring evolution or rationally designed. Such a conjunction reveals the ability of biological systems to physically explore solution spaces and gravitate towards information-rich attractors. The ensuing technical question is how to bring about genetic hyper-diversification for securing the desired performance of a given synthetic device. This issue will be illustrated with a number of practical cases where artificially enhanced variability was key to find ideal outcomes to otherwise intractable design hitches of interest for industrial and environmental biotechnology.