Reaching for freedom…

I’ve spent over a decade working in advanced research facilities as a designer and operator of heavy machinery, and now it’s been more than 1 year working as a consultant… And at this point I’ve seen so many men cry before I show up... as they try DIY and fail. But it doesn’t take much to pull their projects out from a hole…

All the problems boil down to this stupid fixed $/h - everyone’s stretching and “thinning out” hours…

  • Some avoid hiring, try DIY it, pay self for “trying” and “learning” - 10x to 50x more than a good engineer would consume. And then fail… start crying.

  • Due to lack of competences in engineering, clients often can not identify a good consultant. Get cheated by offers of lower $/h... who consume 8x to 16x more hours than needed… and fail. They also fail.

  • Clients also get cheated by service providers. Who say “yes” to everything… “yes we can, yes we will”, fail… delays.. 2 weeks… 6 months… “guarantees” - fail.

So, in some way my services offer protection - from disasters and financial crises… The consequences are awful… There’s only 1 cure. One has to know “how”… “how to do it yourself”… in order to recognize “who” is able to do what has to be done - effectively and efficiently. Methodically.

Test the providers and your suppliers - like they are students. I am certified to be a professor at a University level. Can see if they pass the exams… warranties / guarantees - do not recover your time and material losses… it’s nonsense. People just gamble using insurance.

Most of my clients I meet now are in situation where they have been scrapping some bottom in engineering for 4 months or 2 years… and in a few weeks my clients smile again, once I am done with their project, or just get the things moving again… Things simply work - when you get the right person.

Things can get done:

  • 10x faster…

  • with 4x less people (especially less middle managers)

The real life experience is empowering. Making good people smile, and the bad people panic… But at the same time, it is extremely scary…

Scary to see how inefficient, reckless and short sighted a lot of places can be… How dangerous and irresponsible some decision makers are. “it will hold… craftsmen know” - then it doesn’t, and they don’t…

What a trap, if you sell yourself to some “owner” who pays a fixed hourly rate. You will never break free. Isn’t that true?

Many places out there make money by selling your life to others… just “pleasure the client per hour”… they pay half to the “worker” - and take other half to themselves… and just slow the things down, “stretch the hours”… to consume more of employees and their clients time, lives and budget. I do not like that.

Why does a person, who does 4 months * 4 people (= 16 month) job in 2 weeks alone get the same $/h as someone who fails while “trying” 32x slower? Not fair… that’s not fair, and not good… is slower better for you?

How is it so, that 1 person is “managed” by 2 to 6 people in a “broken communication chain”? And you pay everyone in that chain… It is scary… and silly. And yes, I am angry… but caring. And very sincere.

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Working while studying.

Before consulting, I worked for a decade in advanced industrial research facilities. Both operating and designing heavy machines and components. I was building the equipment - and then using it for testing soil properties and soil foundation prototypes for wind turbines…

That’s a bit odd to tell people… a “geotechnician”? Designing heavy machinery? Structures?… yes. How else are you going to test them? Without the equipment? Industrial machines cost 10x more AND take 10x longer to deliver than getting it done with your own “head + hands” combo… physics, hand calculations, simulations… welders…

A geotechnical… can also do coding. Code his own sensors, bridge gaps between industrial software… when really needed. It’s faster than talking to Q&A in USA for 2 weeks in a row during the nights, then waiting 2 months for a team to arrive to evaluate something that they find confusing and watch them spend time “learning to do it”...

Working in Ad-Hoc heavy machinery lab conditions was a unique chance to both:

  1. Practice. Design and build REALLY HEAVY testing machinery. And then - operate it.

  2. Tests. Test the machinery - while testing the specimens… Double the data, double experience :)

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Ph.D. Rooted in “hands on”.

Before a job in research I had worked in manufacturing briefly. In 2010, my first job was in a metal workshop. Besides working with standards, I saw a large flow of orders asking to ASAP verify structures… that’s how I discovered FEM/FEA… I was amazed by it ever since. So I quit my first real engineering job, at the age 23 (now I am 35) and went for an M.Sc. in Denmark… it extended to Ph.D., Post Doc…

I worked my ass off, was pulling the projects, building machines, coding the sensors, processing data, managing 60 students (M.Sc. level)… I was the “independent right hand” of my “owner” for a full decade, and covered his ass up… but his son got promoted… for nothing. For nationality. Nepotism… ? That taught me a valuable lesson…

Exposure to high responsibility work before studying (and being the “horse” in large scale research projects) made me take lectures seriously... I was noticed quickly, and allowed to design, build and operate heavy machinery - unsupervised. I soon was treated like the supervisor of my supervisor, in most technical questions…

Many things got built in 10 years... From frames and joints holding 25 tone PID controlled hydraulic pistons. Down to coding fragile sensors in giant custom built CNC machines. And it felt… easy. Too easy. Just slow and boring and low paid too. All while spending my own life savings to buy my own tools…

Surprisingly, it does not look good to employers… employers don’t want you to say you “did it”... but technically… if they know how to pay - then I know how to do it. That is the truth.

They pay themselves and their own generously… while talking about “equality”… I have had access to proposal writing, and I’ve seen the budget… I’ve seen the prices… how it distributes… I’m not “just a worker” no longer.

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Higher ambitions

I have a hard time fitting in in low level positions, after so many years of being in charge of so many people, and making the independent engineering decision (even had a “private technician”, who liked to work with me by his own choosing)…

I taught more than 300 M.Sc. students… 35 year old people who often have children ... Which developed a very strong and reliable intuition to evaluate peoples potential and future performance in engineering. I can pick high skill people, and get along very well with them... but can not hire… do not have income…

I cannot afford anyone or anything with my “average income”. But, as a consultant, I can do multiple projects in parallel. Work in 3 places - 3 jobs - 1 income… creating examples of work - that are secret…

What a nuisance… so many “secrets”… and all so simple. How can you be known for the things you can do - if you’re not allowed to show it to no one?

what a paradox. :)

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The dark side of business

As I wonder through multiple companies and private projects - some things really disturb me:

  1. High IQ exploitation. Massive under utilization of talent. There are way too many smart kids out there, taken advantage of by imbeciles. They hire those kids young, and deprive them from real education… destroying their lives... God. What a nightmare… absolute loss of human potential. On massive scale…

  2. Sex… many offices, startups and private businesses out there are nothing more than a “brothel under cover”. Places with 3 engineers and 15 managers, who have no idea what they are managing… but flirt with the secretary while planning a wedding… orgies in laboratory basements, men sharing “wives”… “need more girls in engineering” has an alternative meaning… I’m not a fan of those type of places or those type of people. Strongly against it.

  3. Fake engineering. Some clients ask to “just say it’s ok”. Just “press a button and say it’s ok”… that’s not my job. If you wish to get yourself fake reports just to run away from legal responsibility - you will have to look elsewhere. Simulations find mistakes. Brain - finds solutions. The bigger the brain, the better and faster resulting solutions.

  4. Nepotism. Son and dad business… often ends up like a “tiny corrupt kingdom”. Kids often have no clue what they are doing. Interfere with the process like 5 year old kids with a screw driver… But still get 3x… I do not mind to be a teacher. As long as I get paid well. But be aware… More than once a “son” of a “dad” ended up crying because things are going “too fast” he “can not keep up”… it is quite annoying.

  5. Nationalism - clients who understand perfectly fine when I say in English… but they have their own “superior” language, “superior” culture, according to flag, according to nation… numbers do not have a nation. They are universal. Solutions are found using reason and logic… not some form of a “local culture”…

  6. Socialism. “Everyone is equal”, same $/h… it does not matter if you fail, or you succeed, everyone gets paid “the same” - per hour… same $/h…. which means - the slower you work, the more you fail - the more money you can extract from your client. People start optimizing “toiled breaks” instead of performance… I do not want to be paid for taking a shit. When 16 months (64 weeks) of work get done in 2 weeks … and the result actually works. How much higher $/h should that person be paid… doing things 32x faster?…

I have encountered all 6 of these pathologies in my 14 years of work. In multiple countries, companies, projects… I traveled 12 time zones looking for something different… and never found it.

My life was damaged by these evil practices… And my family tree was shredded to pieces due exposure to those practices also. I have made it my mission - to avoid corrupt people, and provide good, real solutions. Rebelling, simply… through education, working sincerely, and building up competences.

Producing real value to real people.