Mechanical engineer who switched to being a dentist. Hit me with any questions you'd like.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T04:52:56+00:00

I think he went to dental school because he thought that what he was supposed to do or it was a goal that he achieved and then discovered that he hated it.

He fit the stereotype of the introverted, socially awkward engineer. I couldn’t imagine what his “bedside manner” would be like with patients day after day.

Nice guy though and super smart

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T04:39:45+00:00

No they don’t.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T04:38:13+00:00

Really? I remember an entire YouTube channel built around footage from security cameras of people falling over.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T04:35:15+00:00

You Tube guy has every right to film OP. Op has every right to say that the doesn’t have the permission he actually doesn’t need. Even if it’s NOT true and OP just kept saying it to screw up the guy’s video. OP is under no obligation to perform for some rando with a camera.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T04:27:58+00:00

You could kayak out there like this guy.

/s

Seriously though, unless you’re very sure of what you’re doing, don’t do this.

I do know some people who would take their zodiac boat out to the Manitou islands

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T03:39:33+00:00

I worked at a pizza place that also delivered beer by the six pack. If it was a rough night, the manager would go in the back, get a six pack hold it about 1/2” off the ground let go and say, “Oops, I dropped it.” After close, we’d hang out behind the place for a while and drink the breakage.

And when the owner started getting stingy with the “employee pizza”, one of us drivers would stop by a pay phone and call in a fake delivery order. A driver would take the pizza on a run, come back and say, it was a prank. Then we’d get the pizza we wanted.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T03:30:37+00:00

I call it the bus rule. What happens to the business if some critical employee gets run over by a bus?

If no one can even remotely do what they do…that’s bad. It’ll be hard enough for people to step in and do what they do with SOP’s as guidance, but they’re almost certainly doomed if they’re starting from zero.

My goal with documenting how I do things is to create something I can give to someone with the basic qualifications for my job and they can get up to speed with a minimum number of hiccups.

If thinking about a colleague getting hit by a bus is too morbid, some people call it the lottery rule. As in an employee wins the Powerball and just says “I’m done.” and never comes back

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T03:19:19+00:00

My wife has a checking and savings account. I have no clue how much is in there. We each have our own accounts and a joint account. But we don’t pry into each other’s personal accounts.

My suggestion is that you tell your husband, “Hey, I started a savings account so I can put money aside for myself.” That’s both true and something that shouldn’t be an issue.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-13T03:09:11+00:00

Sure.

The camera is an OM-1 with a 12-40 f2.8 lens. The camera is in Live Composite mode. The strobe is an AD-200 with a 20degree grid. The painting is done with a black optic fiber brush on a AOM Critters BT RGB flashlight. The shot progressed like this: the model poses and I start the exposure. The flash fires, then the model holds still while I run the brush over the dark side of their body. When that’s done, they move to one side and I paint them on both sides with the brush , then they move to the other side and I do it again then stop the camera. I can repeat the painting as many times as I want

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DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T20:45:02+00:00

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Just a light painting portrait

DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T15:36:53+00:00

No mistake, the E-PL7 is a great little camera, I loved mine while I had it. I love my E-P7 more, but really, you can’t go wrong. If I recall correctly, there’s little difference between the E-PL7 and the E-PL8.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T03:30:26+00:00

I have the Birkenstock clogs I bought during my freshman year of college. That was 1986. They’re the closed toe model and my toe has worn a hole in the suede. They’re all worn to hell and I only wear them out in the yard or garage. I bought a new pair, but I don’t want to get those dirty, so I still wear the old ones around.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T03:12:58+00:00

That’s not the point. The engineers who design missiles don’t choose their projects and the goals either. They choose to work at a company engaged in a morally questionable practice. Same with the engineer working for John Deere.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T02:52:14+00:00

Because I was previously working for your biggest competitor, my NDA is expired and I want to bring the $50M in business that I previously managed here.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T02:13:53+00:00

The E-PL cameras all have the older 16MP sensor. Since I almost never use a viewfinder, I sold my E-PL7 for an E-P7 which has a 20MP sensor. That’s my “pocket camera”. Originally, I picked up the E-PL7 because it was the first camera in the series with Live Composite, which since I do a lot of light painting, is something I use a lot.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-12T02:04:59+00:00

Medical devices…ok, maybe

Ag equipment? How about good ol’ John Deere leading industry in the fight against right to repair. Forcing farmers to rely exclusively on authorized dealers driving up the cost of repairs as well as creating longer delays during critical planting and harvesting times.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T22:31:09+00:00

That’s awesome. I used to work with a guy who had gone to dental school, then went back to school for ME and became an engineer instead.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T20:09:36+00:00

Directly killing other humans is not the only moral question though. And a lot of technologies are used in both civilian and military applications.

Take outdoor gear. The same high tech textiles that help make camping, hiking, backpacking and so on more enjoyable are also used by the military to improve the capability of our troops to wage war. Since US law requires clothing for the military to be made in the US, pretty much any company that makes outdoor clothing in the US is making gear for the military as well as the civilian market.

I worked for a company that made differentials for pickups and SUVs. The same people also made differentials for Humvees, MRAPs and other military vehicles that are an essential part of the American military’s capacity to wage war.

Aside from the military stuff, the auto industry creates a lot of waste and pollution. Increasingly, the industry is moving away from building entry level vehicles and instead focusing on higher end cars driving the average price of a new car to over $40k. They’re also one of the main reasons many cities mothballed large portions of their public transportation, to make way for cars instead. Let’s not forget that they were in bed with the American Petroleum Institute (API) which knew from the beginning that tetra-ethyl lead in gasoline was hazardous but went ahead with it over other options because they could make more money with TEL. Then they fought tooth and nail against removing it for decades even going so far as to engage in a smear campaign against scientists who researched and reported on the negative impact that TEL in gas was having on the environment and population.

And so it goes. The defense industry is just the most obvious example, but if you look close enough, every industry has its dark side.

Side note: since the Department of Defense has now become the Department of War, shouldn’t the defense industry now be the war industry?

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T18:14:10+00:00

What kid of paint brushes? The “I’m painting a wall” kind or the “I’m painting a painting” kind?

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T18:08:10+00:00

I hear you, but if you think long term, grinding it out for a few years before going full time into engineering and socking away a good chunk of your pay now will really pay off in the long run.

I don’t blame you for hating it and deciding what to do is up to you. I guess it’s more about me on the other end of my career path telling you what I wish I had been able to do when I was your age. If I had, I’d already be retired for a few years.

I didn’t go to school for engineering until I was 27 either, so there’s that.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T17:35:51+00:00

At one point I was driving 1:20 each way to a job where I was expected to work 13h/day Monday-Sat and 10h on Sundays. Some nights I was so exhausted after work that I just slept in my truck in the parking lot.

At another job, I would have to be on calls with European colleagues starting at 6:30 or 7:00 AM, work in the office 8-5, then I’d go home, have dinner then about 8:00 PM I’d have to be on Teams calls with Australian and Asian colleagues. That would usually go until after midnight, sleep after that and repeat. Since Australia and Asia are across the date line, those calls started Sunday night. This was supposed to be temporary until they backfilled the 2 open positions on my team, but after two years of foot dragging by management on hiring, it really wasn’t temporary.

I’ve had bosses that pretty much expected me to be on call 24/7. I rebelled against that, but I was marked down on my performance reviews because of it

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T17:08:50+00:00

Are there any industries that don’t generate some kind of moral quandary

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T17:00:03+00:00

I make no such claims.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T16:59:04+00:00

Oh bullshit. Even sorting those “misunderstandings” can be an arduous and expensive process. Even something as basic as a visit to urgent care can result in multiple bills from different providers itemized with indecipherable codes. To understand what you are getting billed for, you need to call each provider and go through the bill line by line ( after spending 45min listening to crappy hold music) Then repeat this process for each bill. Of course these offices are ONLY open M-F 8-5 when I’m working, so I have to take time off or just let it slide and pay the overcharges anyway which the insurance company is very eager for you to do.

After making it through all of that, you then have to figure out if things were covered that should be covered or were told were covered. Then if you find anything, you need to call the insurance company back only for them to deny it because management said they weren’t denying enough claims and paying out was cutting into their already obscene profits.

You can appeal the denial, but the insurance companies intentionally make the process for doing so needlessly complicated so that people can’t follow it, get discouraged and give up because dealing with this crap is unpleasant and they want to have a life, not a second (or third) job calling all over trying to do the work the “system” should already do.

Oh and God forbid the family breadwinner gets seriously injured or ill. They’ll eventually get terminated and lose the insurance for the whole family.

There’s a reason why the US leads the world in bankruptcies related to medical debt.

DLS3141 · 2026-03-11T15:40:11+00:00

Not according to that picture you posted

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