Dr Joe Speaks...
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Preamble:
The title of this message Dr Joe Speaks is a reference to Atlas Shrugged,
perhaps the most influential book I have ever read with the exception of the Bible. Note my avatar. Who is John Galt? Anyone who has read the book knows this answer but also knows that the chapter “John Galt Speaks” is almost a novel by itself. So… …I expect that Dr Joe Speaks will be a novella in its own right by the time I hit “submit.” I hope you make it to the end. JJ
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My 2 weeks of fame are almost up so I thought I had better respond before I move off stage for the next UFH.
I was surprised how much I have enjoyed being an UFH. I knew it was coming, but somehow when you actually ARE the UFH and people you know, respect, and, in some instances, love are saying all those great things about you, well… …I’ll tell you truthfully, it gets your throat all tight and your eyes all watery.
Of course I want to say thank you to all those who have said nice things about me. Thank you. But more than that, I want to thank
OneAngryDwarf for nominating me and most especially the UFH committee for creating the conditions for so many great people to get some well deserved recognition. You are throwing the easy pitches for others to hit out of the park. Keep throwing those high ones right down the middle of the plate, it is a worthy endeavor.
As to the folks who responded to this message, I will thank you individually, but let me say to you all as a group, that I was moved by your compliments and stories. Thank you.
Now more about me and a bit of news that I will save to the end (I don’t want to lose my audience when my keyboard is just getting warmed up :-)
I believe much of life is a sort of
Brownian Motion affair. We are like small bits of smoke whacked this way and that by the people we meet. Those who know me well know that I am a man of faith and that I believe in a higher purpose and plan to these “random” events. Even so, it is often hard for me to discern a higher purpose to most of these chance interactions. I am not so lucky as
George Bailey to have my random walk mapped out for me. Reading the above thread, I have been reminded more than once about the Wonderful Life I have had.
But back to my Brownian Motion reference, the path of my life is so complex and the number of interactions has been so numerous and apparently random that it is hard to assign a cause effect relationship to the vast majority of my life. BUT the vast majority is not the entirety. There are some whacks that have changed the arc of my life so dramatically that it is hard not to link cause and effect.
Indulge me as I detail some of the impacts and the change in course they have caused.
If you would have spoken to the 8th grade boy that grew up to become Dr. Joe about his future plans, he would have told you straight away that “4 more years of this school stuff and I am DONE!” He would have been kind of fuzzy about what he was going to do to make his way in the world (perhaps he’d start some sort of business), but college was not in The Plan, that much was clear.
Mom & Dad. Fill in the usual boring stuff folks say about parents here but perhaps add that in raising me they found the right balance between the freedom to explore new things, the right limits needed to prevent permanent damage and the encouragement I needed to spread my wings and fly.
Mrs. Phillips. When Mrs. Phillips required everyone in her freshman science class to pick a career description card from a file box, read it and write a short essay on that career, I can remember thinking, “What a stupid assignment!” But, if they ever make a movie about my Wonderful Life, the score will crescendo as I read that randomly chosen 8 ˝ by 11 sheet of paper with Mechanical Engineer in bold print across the top. It was like I was reading about a lost race of people that I never knew existed but that I now knew were MY PEOPLE. If four years of schooling were required to claim my birthright, what was that to me? Thanks to Mrs. Phillips, I was headed to college to get a THUNK on the head! I was off to get that B.S. degree, the stamp of approval that made official to the world what I knew in my heart: I belong to that strange and mysterious race called Mechanical Engineer.
Prof. Klein. Back to that movie script, the role of Prof. Klein, wise old curmudgeon, would be played by a Walter Matthau or Fred Thompson type actor I suppose. Professor Klein opened a whole new world up to me. The beauty of mathematics and the usefulness of automatic control theory. He was irreverent and idealistic at the same time. The way he taught engineering made me think, “Why isn’t all engineering taught this way?” He made me want to join the struggle to fix engineering education at Big Time Engineering Schools (which was and remains broken in many ways). But… …I needed another THUNK on the head to be able to get into the game. What are 4 or 5 more years when the stakes are so high? I was off to grad school.
Prof. Bajaj. Getting a Ph.D. in retrospect was a great thing for me, but not for the reasons I had decided to get one. I could write a novel on this but let me just leave it with these 3 points: 1) The more I learned about what most professors really do, the less I wanted to become one. 2) The best part about having a Doctoral Degree is that once you have it, you have it your whole life. I have years for the degree to pay me back for the pains it took me to obtain it. 3) Had it not been for the kindness and advice of Professor Bajaj (played in the movie by himself – Eastern mystic philosophers age very well, if at all ;-) I likely would have called it quits before reaching the goal.
Carl Visconti, hired me based solely on a single phrase on my resume, “I want to work with interesting machines.” What need did he have to hire someone with a Ph.D.? None, as far as I could ever discover. Lucky for me he couldn’t hire enough folks who loved interesting machines.
Dr. Barbara Sanders has been a mentor almost from the first day she stepped into my chain of command. At the time she was my Great Grand Boss (my boss’ boss’ boss). She has been a great mentor and personal advisor but she also played an important role in my introduction to FIRST.
The story of my introduction to FIRST still puts goose bumps on my skin. Ten years ago, the Sunday paper supplement, Parade Magazine, had a cover story on FIRST (then U.S. FIRST). As someone who has been looking to change the world since as long as I can remember, I knew that FIRST was the program for me. I cut out the article and made plans to pitch the idea to my management, specifically, the Director of Advanced Development, Dr. Barbara Sanders.
Before I continue I have to tell you a part of the story was unknown to me at the time. As it turns out, some weeks earlier, the General Director of Engineer from my division, Al Billis (my Great Great Grand Boss ;-), heard a pitch about a robot competition and high school kids from his counterpart at Delco Electronics. The seed landed on fertile soil. Subsequently, Mr. Billis forwarded the follow up letter from the Delco exec to one of his direct reports, the Director of Advanced Development, Dr. Barbara Sanders, writing in the margin, “Barbara, Make this happen, Al.”
Now back to me and that Parade article: it took me until Wed. to get on Barbara’s schedule. On my way to her office with the FIRST article in my hand, I stopped to check my mailbox where I found the very letter above forward to me, in turn, by Barbara with the following note below Al’s: “Joe, Come see me about this. BAS.”
So let me summarize: armed with an article about FIRST, I was on my way to talk to my management about sponsoring a FIRST team when I received a letter from my management asking me to come see them about setting up a FIRST team. There was a hot feeling in my face as my heart nearly beat out of my chest. I was slightly dizzy as I walked to Barbara’s office, but I knew that this was no random whack but a purposeful redirection of the arc of my life.
There are more stories I would like to share but this message is long enough. Besides you get the idea. Our lives are intertwined in complex ways. You never know when a “non random whack” will come. Even more importantly, you never know what direction such whacks will take you…
…Which leads me to the news bit of this thread.
As my team already knows, I have not been spending time helping Chief Delphi this year. Other personal priorities have pulled me away. That 8th Grade Future Dr. Joe may have been wrong about the 4 more years of school bit but he may have had it right about that starting some sort of business idea.
In any case, I am going to be taking time off of Delphi for a while, perhaps going part time or maybe a leave of absence. Even though my commitment to FIRST is as strong as ever, given my personal situation, I just can’t do FIRST this year. I will be curtailing even my advisory role with Chief Delphi and I will more or less have to abandon ChiefDelphi.com for the time being. On the positive side, I still plan to be a judge at the Great Lakes Regional and (perhaps) in Atlanta. Time will tell.
Failing some huge non random whack, I am confident that I will be back but not right now and probably not for months or years.
I thank you all (especially those who’ve made it this far down the page ;-)
I bid you fair well until we meet again.
Joe J.
(Alias Dr. Joe)