Beers with Engineers

Pete Rezac - The Ritual Engineer

#36 – Pete Rezac: The Ritual Engineer
First job out of college was at a startup working on hydrogen energy.
Pete was unschooled (not homeschooled) through 7th
Didn’t believe his Mom when she tried to teach him the rules of English.
For math he was mostly self-taught and discovered the distributive property
Often school erodes children’s natural inquisitiveness.
Many smart kids were troublemakers because they were bored.
Decision on whether to homeschool his kids was not what you would expect.
Our brains have learning windows that close.
Science is discovering ways to open them back up.
The Anxious Generation, The Coddling of the American Mind, and The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt – Great books.
It’s not social media, it’s anti-social media.
“Mixed with Meaning” is his catering bartending company with custom cocktails.
He found people are able to be more present and connecting.
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
Bert forgot the joke. Thanks to Pete for remembering.
Why there is so much methane in Siberia.
Favorite spice (herb) is thyme. Clove is underutilized.
Pete would love to influence people to incorporate ritual into their lives.
Pete’s bartending company - https://mixedwithmeaning.squarespace.com/
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

David Elentukh: Not An EIT, A DIT – Doctor in Training

#35 – David Elentukh: Not An EIT, A DIT – Doctor in Training
Drinking kombucha but is a sour beer fan.
12 cylinder rotary engines?
Why do we make the decisions we do?
“Paycheck” with Ben Affleck and other movies inspired him to engineering. (but not “Falling Down”)
Isaac Asimov did not believe in character development, especially in the “Foundation” series.
Knows why he loves engineering, but less why he became one.
Every day is a new challenge.
Really good designs are often not wildly creative but well implemented.
Challenging the idea of a biomedical engineering degree.
Which is better for college, quarters or semesters?
Shark Ninja really cares about customer feedback.
Intentionally making mistakes so the customer is happy when you fix it.
Make sure you enjoy the process.
EMT is the least stressful job he has ever had.
Perfect quality work is exceeding what people think is possible.
Prototyping multiple options sometimes just confirms your original decision and demonstrates why it is better.
Checklist are great thing. Another plug for “Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande.
Just writing something is important.
Has done a bit of smithing.
Ira Glass paraphrase: It takes a lot of work to make your skills catch up to your tastes.
The full quote https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i-wish 
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

Tim Johnson: Axe throwing, Ninja engineer

#34 – Tim Johnson: Axe throwing, Ninja engineer
Owns a Parkour/ninja gym and Axe-Throwing Bar
The town council raised an eyebrow at the second one.
Tinker toys and old broken toys can be used for prototypes
In college, president of the Demiurgical Engineering club.
Worked on the Segway and Rockband drumkit.
Tried to quit but his boss wouldn’t let him.
Has been doing martial arts since he was a child
so he started his own gym.
but thinks it has been a bit wimpified a bit.
Once an engineer, always an engineer
When starting a company, better to do it slowly than jumping in 100%.
Tim wrote several dual language books.
Opened The Axe Pit in 2016, serving local wine, beer, and liquor.
The gym is an opportunity to learn problem solving and expanding comfort zone.
Don’t say “No”, say “yes, if.”
For fun he does a bit of drone racing. Around the house.
He has a swinging bookshelf that goes into his “secret” lab.
Tim’s Companies – https://www.theaxepit.com/   https://mainewarriorgym.com/
Tim’s Books - link
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

Chris Costa: He always has enough time for people.

#33 – Chris Costa: He always has enough time for people.
Chris is enjoying his favorite beer, Sam Adams Octoberfest
Chris placed engineers and now sells SolidWorks
Crashed three planes when in high school
Some recruiters suggest jobs that are a terrible fit.
It seems like an easy job, but it isn’t. It requires lots of contacts.
Learn from his father: “You always have enough time for people”
How many things could you do with this brick?
Drafter and mechanical designer jobs have all but disappeared.
Mechanical engineers wear a lot of hats.
Engineers get too much blame and not enough credit.
Without engineers, he wouldn’t have a job.
Engineers typically struggle to market themselves.
Two things not to say:
“After he left, I had to fix his mess”
“But we’ve always done it this way”
Many years coaching baseball and now an umpire.
Youth baseball has changed in 50 years.
He has good friends with mutual trust.
Per Chris, demand for injection molded plastic parts is not going away.
Used to love “The Gong Show”
The original “Star Trek” only lasted three seasons.
He has advised people to try a different profession.
Chris’s Company, SolidXperts - https://www.solidxperts.com/en/
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

Steve Drake: Speakers in your suspension?

#32 – Steve Drake: Speakers in your suspension?
Beers with engineers or wine-ing and designing?
Steve worked at Bose – the Soundlink and the Wave CD radio.
As a kid, he jumped off a roof with a trash bag as a parachute.
Elsewhere, worked in electro-optics system group.
Always been interested in acoustics and Bose was very close to home.
Bose was a great place to work; high caliber people.
Bose worked on car suspension.
They also worked on suspension seats for trucks.
Bose – big rich sound in a really small package
Steve likes Klipsch speakers
Helped unify different groups at Olympus
Did some nice analysis on silicone for passive radiators in Bose speakers
Sometimes test results that don’t make sense at first actually do when examined closely.
He took an engineering approach to getting his daughter to nap better.
Steve likes cooking. It’s more like jazz than engineering.
"On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee
"Chemistry in the Kitchen" by Matthew Hartings
Steve wants to go to Portugal, see the coast, and try the food.
Croatia is also high on the list.
Bert's website - www.dexterityeng.com
 
 

Todd Mansfield: Culture is what you do.

#31 – Todd Mansfield: Culture is what you do.
Lots of microbreweries in Boise, Idaho.
Todd grew up on a farm north of Boise.
He became an aircraft mechanic and is also a pilot
He did fly the planes he worked on.
Later involved in building materials and electromechanical devices.
Worked on kit airplanes
9V batteries contain 6 AAAA batteries
His company, OneIPM, co-founded by Bill Dahl, who co-founded Solidworks PDM Works.
Their tool is fully integrated into Onshape
Bert used and liked Trello years ago.
One IPM and Trello both use kanban boards
OneIPM is good for project management and assembly structure visualization
On the importance of culture and remote work.
Working in different time zones
Don’t keep score when golfing
Todd's company - www.oneipm.com/ 
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

Josh Hoy: Robots and a dollar store trebuchet

#30 – Josh Hoy: Robots and a dollar store trebuchet
Josh wanted to work on robots since 4th
You learn the fastest by making mistakes and teaching other people about them.
Robotics program is like three minors
You work both below and above your pay grade.
Bamboo bicycles are a thing; bamboo lacrosse sticks, too.
Wooden shoes complicated forming the EU.
Things look done way before they are done.
A few SolidWorks tips.
Josh is a big OnShape fan
Did you know dollar stores sell pallets?
A specific career plan is not required, but a guiding thought is.
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

Annie Green: Artificial Intelligence, consider both value and values.

#29 – Annie Green: Artificial Intelligence, consider both value and values.
Among other things, Annie is an instructor at George Washington University.
She originally wanted to be a pediatrician but decided against it.
Working with blood analyzers was part of her shift to engineering.
Artificial intelligence is the emulation of man.
Our brains use the past and the present to predict the future.
Structured vs unstructured artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence vs augmented intelligence
ChatGPT, et al are augmented intelligence.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Laziness is the father.
She feels we need to stop or pause and think about AI for some time.
Gell-Mann amnesia effect – applies to AI.
Is there a correlation between jobs that can be done remotely and jobs that can be replaced by AI?
Go back to the office to share your knowledge and help others.
Similarly, go to the office to learn.
There is a lot more to AI than ChatGPT.
AI was kicked off in 1956, but computers weren’t strong enough.
“Hidden Figures” movie about human computers.
Data is the blood of an organization.
Intelligence is actionable information.
She doesn’t want to be an influencer, she wants to be an illuminator.
She wants AI to bring true value, without compromising values.
Working on a Knowledge management education forum.
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com

Beers with Engineers Trailer, 2.0

This trailer gives you a quick overview of the podcast. Your host, Bert Uschold, talks to other engineers about their careers, engineering, and whatever else that interests us. It is a pint of fun and a shot of geek.
If you want to find out more about Bert, below is a link to a short bio and a bit of work history.  https://dexterityeng.com/about

Tim Coonahan: Not team building, building a team

#28 – Tim Coonahan: Not team building, building a team
Tim is Director, Design and Development at Medica Corporation
Drinking engineering appropriately named beer – “Ripping Through Dimensions” and “Memory Bias”.
An anti-phonetic (not semaphore) alphabet “A” as in are, “y” as in you, “E” as in eye.
Went to RPI – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, oldest non-military technical school in the US.
Started as biomedical, ended as mechanical
Learn as much as you possibly can
From a family of engineers – steel and railroads
Organic chemistry as an elective?
Is vertical integration coming back?
A Machine Design cover story got him into product development consulting.
Got him back into biomedical engineering
Happy to be middle-management, closer to engineering.
You’re either learning or earning
Be open to new ideas.
“Your work is done not when there is nothing more to add, it’s done when there’s nothing more to take away.”
Electric cars have many fewer parts.
First used sla in 1988.
We were with each other on 9/11. Our memories are a little different.
Tim collects old Porsches and has 44-year-old boots.
Bert’s Company – www.dexterityeng.com