"Pragmatic Reality"

Jim,

You hit another one on the head today!

Dr. Ed Stahl, one of my college profs and the philosopher on the NCSU ChE staff, gave us hot-shot seniors some advice many years ago (1968 as I recall). After more than 40 years I make no claim that I can still quote him, but the gist of his comments is

1. ChE's that commit their lives to making life for mankind will last; those who commit to making money may or may not
2. The world is becoming smaller and smaller; when third world (and lower) countries finally figure out what we have, they will want it and they won’t mind taking it from us if that's the easiest way to get it.
3. Americans need to hope that the world economy grows fast enough to not only exceed population growth, but also the growth in world intellect and distributed information.
4. The 4 years spent in college was not to teach us what was in the books we studied; all of that was already known and incorporated into 'normal' life; the purpose of college was to prepare the student to be able to recognize, define, solve and maybe even create problems that are not in any books yet.

On our last class with him, he said he hoped some of us would become Engineers for a Better World.

Well, his points were on target, I think, as yours nearly always are.

ChE's (and others) who hung their shingles in paper mills, chemical plants, munitions plants, and even investment houses are taking it on the ear now. While in school, my grandmother was struggling with heart problems; I toyed with trying to go to grad school and move toward taking an engineering approach to human body processes, particularly the circulatory system. Had I heeded Dr. Stahl's advice, life would have been very different for me.

A lawyer at UCC once said that information is the most powerful weapon available to mankind; those who control it are in power. Well the 'web certainly proved his point. The magic of the American lifestyle is gone; it's envied world wide. The auto worker is the Chinese plant wants some of the $$$'s the UAW guys get, even if it means putting him out of work. Life is that way; I buy my shirts from the guy with the best quality at the lowest cost.

The world economy did NOT grow fast enough to keep us prospering and allow the rest of the world to catch up. With the shortage of supply and the abundance of demand, markets were shaken, greed set in and now we see the results of building a global economy using a house of cards as the foundation.

Within the first month after I graduated from college, I needed a particular coefficient to complete a heat exchanger design review I was doing. It wasn't in any book that I had and there was no 'web. After frantically searching for a day or two, I looked closely at the role of the coefficient in the equation; it was in a part of the calculation that was inconsequential to the final result due to a fractional power being involved. I estimated a value and moved on. I refigured the data assuming the coefficient to be double what I had earlier estimated and found the answer to be nearly the same. I realized what Dr. Stahl had meant about being prepared to deal with stuff not in books.

The problem I see all around is too many people trying to create tomorrow while holding-on to yesterday. If paper's role in communications has changed to the point that the market is declining, then paper mills might have been caught selling the wrong product all along. Maybe Paper companies were good at upgrading one of our nation's most abundant renewable resource--trees. At one time that upgrade was making log cabins out of them, then it was something else, and ultimately it was paper. Now that paper's role in communications has been overtaken by other devices, where's the next upgrade for trees? Chemicals? I don't know but there's got to be something better than burning them to make power.

I see now that I should have left the paper industry at least 10 years before I did, but I didn't want to take the cut that was necessary then. As you know three years ago, I took the step. I believe I'm in an industry that serves mankind. It's personally satisfying. Financially, I'm making slightly less than 60% of what I did in 1997, but I'm working, contributing, progressing, learning, having some fun, and keeping a roof over Glenda's and my head, clothes on our backs, and food on our table. Do I miss old friends and associates in the paper industry? Yes Do I miss the processes and opportunity seeking that were so captivating in the paper industry? Yes. Do I miss the paper industry? No

Life goes on; one has to decide whether to sit and whine or go with it.

Thanks for another good article and a chance to spout-off.

Ed Turner
Houston, Texas
USA

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Jim,

Possession is 9/10s of the law? I guess if I was the evil genius, I accuse the participants of selling the snowmobiles to each other and give the prize to the rider of the second place vehicle anyway. Evil is as evil does ...

The role of one who stirs up the pot is to stir up the pot. Keep up the great stirring.

Peace,

Gene Canavan
Prattville, Alabama
USA

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Greetings Jim,

I appreciated your thoughts.

Over the past 20+ years, the pulp and paper industry has provided well for me and my family. I have spent much of the past 10 years working directly with customers to discover and develop products that "scratch" their particular itch. While I feel good about my accomplishments, I am still looking outside the paper industry for the first time.

As we see unemployment in North America still on the rise, we should anticipate communication papers (my example would be 20# cut size commonly used in the office copier) demand to decline. The logic is simply fewer white collar employees will result in fewer copies. With decreasing demand, there will probably be need for ongoing reductions and equipment shutdowns or closures to find a balance.

It has been a good ride, but worst of the current economic slowing may still be ahead for the paper and associated industries. I like the analogy of taking a deep breath, and would add that none of us really know how long it may be until we get above water for the next one. The solution, as you indicate, is to anticipate the next itch and either be first or best to respond to the customer with the "scratch" for their "itch."

Thanks again for sharing your insights,

Jon Saatvedt
USA

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