During the last four decades, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has evolved into a pre-eminent clinical imaging modality and invaluable research tool. Much of this development proceeded through increasingly advanced mechanisms to subdue experimental imperfections within the scanner. Over the years, these successes instilled the notion that the pathway towards the ultimate MR system is beset with ever-more-elaborate calibration and compensation mechanisms. But, do we really have to wonder this path? In this talk, I would like to show two examples of a change in perspective that can alleviate the struggle for control and provide new degrees of freedom to broaden the scope of our MR experiments.  The first example, will highlight some of the work on parallel transmission at 7 Tesla and our transition to “Plug and Play Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting”. In the second example, we will take a closer look at the traditional NMR phased array and how a new detector element, called HIC, may change the way we perceive MR coils.