How Did the Wheel Fall Off the Roller Coaster?

About the Book

This book is not just a compilation of rants about how messed up the machining industry is—everybody knows that, right? Poor workmanship, a workforce that doesn’t care . . . head fake! I don’t believe that, and neither should you. If it were up to you and me, we would all want to be properly trained, and we’d all want to put out a good product—something to be proud of. Who wouldn’t want to tell their kids, “See that bridge over there? I helped design it” or “I poured the molds for the castings” or “I made the rivets that hold that thing together”? We all want to be able to brag about what we’ve contributed to the overall. But no, this book is meant to completely change the machining world as we know it. I want to be instrumental as the driving force—to personally spearhead a movement to turn this industry around and make it safe for everyone to drive across bridges, live near an oil pipeline, or maybe even ride a roller coaster without the actual fear that, yes, you might die. The good news is, the status quo can be changed. We can all live in a world where quality and engineering decisions can be made by inspectors and engineers instead of corporate executives. And the time to make that change is now!

About the Author

The first thing you need to know about the author is that I am not a writer—I am a machinist and inspector. I am also not an expert in the field, but I am damn good at it. At work, I tend to be a perfectionist, but my definition of perfection is pretty broad—in tolerance and on time. I have a few simple maxims in life that I live by: (1) “Information is knowledge—knowledge is power”; (2) “Intelligence is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half to believe”; and my favorite and most helpful to the underlings, (3) “All things being equal, there are two things you need to do to excel at work: pay attention and care.”