My story & Answering your questions

[@christopherhelmke]

Feel free to use the timeline to skip boring parts! The technical section starts at 11:35 , I didn't cut out as much as usual this time.

[@mattiasfagerlund]

I'm at 11:50 and not a second was boring so far!

[@seidtgeist]

i’m at 22:48 and none of this was boring. you’re an incredibly inspiring and relatable person 🫶🏻

[@seidtgeist]

ok. permanent pessimism == being german murdered me @ 23:13

[@chyrt]

Wow, this video was amazing. I would love more, especially the topics you didn't have time to dive deep for in this video!

[@retractableroof]

You are worried your dropping out of university makes you less of an engineer. You make amazing stuff, well thought and designed. That is my definition of an engineer, not fulfilling someone else’s list of exams who then for a good share prove completely useless in your future life. Not only dumb and lazy people drop out, also some brave with a different plan.

[@dittilio]

You say you're not an engineer. But the best engineers I know love this channel, admire your methodology and diligence, and describe you as an engineer whether you like it or not. Certified? Maybe not. But qualified? Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Side note: you're softly spoken, so having the microphone closer would be nice. Currently it's a bit quiet and the ads when on mobile are twice as loud.

[@mastertim1985]

Because in Germany it`s illegal to call yourself an "engineer" without acquiring an engineering degree in the first place. Same goes (similarly) for architects and other professions.

[@dittilio]

@@mastertim1985 That applies here in Australia too for specific disciplines, such as structural, electrical and civil. They're "protected titles" here. However where human life and infrastructure are not concerned, (i.e. low risk), the title is more applied to the methodology. Hence software engineers vs. programmers. I see your point though.

[@mastertim1985]

@@dittilio That's my only point. He can't call himself an engineer publicly although he's a very good engineer - at least from what I can tell ;) Btw: I gained a dregree of doctor in architecture in Germany and worked in Switzerland for ten years now but I can't call myself an architect in Germany :D

[@awit27]

I very much enjoyed the insights about engineering and design principles. Didn't find any parts of the video boring, resonated with most of them. Definitely quickly becoming one of my favourite channels when it comes to engineering inspiration, alongside StuffMadeHere.

[@123Liquid321]

You can use the "parametric text" add-in for Fusion 360 to automatically write version numbers into your parts. However, you will still need to place it manually once per part.

[@RCake]

@Christopher thank you for being this open and for sharing your story with us. If my opinion matters any, you are more of an engineer than many engineers around. ...says a Dipl.-Ing. of electrical engineering with +25-year job experience. I just love the elegance, focus and beauty of your solutions.

[@tomekpeki]

Mechatronics engineer here, watching your videos for from the begining and commenting for the first time now, to say that I would love to hear more about your conspts / philosophy about design process. Really interesting and stimulating.

[@YA-gp7fw]

Your experiences and ideas have made this channel one of my favorites. I don't agree with everything, but people who have their own philosophy and can verbalize it are valuable. I have created a lecture in college using a 3D printer exactly like the one you took and I can see why you would say it was a disaster, but I think it is a matter of the amount of knowledge they have, not due to the 3D printer. There are a lot of constraints to consider when designing and machine tooling things, and students don't really think about that. The lecture I created was a "success" because it allowed the students to learn about such disasters first hand. By the way, when I use a 3D printer, my thinking never stops, it just accelerates. The feeling of wanting to touch the design with my own hands accelerates all my motivations. Thanks for creating this video.

[@TheLomsor]

Interesting. Especially the design philosophy. Most other makers on KZbin have a diametric approach where they try to iterate fast. I never liked that myself. It's refreshing to see somebody else sharing a wholistic design process. I like to do thought experiments and design in my head. As soon as I sit down and try to CAD something, everything slows down. In my mind, I can go over 10 iterations in an hour, move things easily and imagine how things might interact. Having easy to use simulators would be great to also get precision in, especially in fields like PCB design where it is much harder to imagine things rather than mechanical design, still, currently the mind seems to be the best ... or like others prefer, rapid iterations.

[@fearghallthomas4808]

If you enjoyed satisfactory, you will almost certainly enjoy factorio, its spiritual predecessor. It has more emphasis on large automated factories and logistical challenges than the exploration based gameplay of Satisfactory, and includes train based logistics and circuit logic.

[@jairo.cabello]

This was exceptional and inspiring, thank you for it. I love the last part in which you talk about the philosophy of designing. I think it's underrated how much the way we think about work impacts the actual quality of work. Principles, constraints, work philosophy and outcome-oriented mindset can have a tremendous impact in the quality of a product. I look forward to see how your way of thinking about creating a product and running a company evolves over time!

[@clint.johnson]

Your previous content has been very good. I’m not sure I’ve seen someone have so many subscribers with so few videos which is an anomaly and speaks to the quality of what you have been designing along with how well you presented it.

[@Markusfried78]

100% true

[@acolombo]

So many subscribers? I think he deserves more

[@johannlicher8420]

It amazes me how you think through so many theoretical design and engineering principles, while not enjoying university. Because I mostly enjoyed the theoretical education in universities and will now even stay in academia, but I never had those deep fundamental thoughts about engineering principles. 🤯

[@gerritecknig]

I'm in my 11th Bachelor Semester in Darmstadt. I feel what you said about the education system there. I wanted to become an mechanical and electrical Engineer since I was 9 Years old and I lost all the fun and love for it in the past Years. I just want do get my degree and I really don't know what to do after that. I will have to somehow find my passion for the subject again after graduation.

[@martinschmidt959]

As a former Apprentice in industrial Mechatronics and Student of Mechatronical Systems Engineering with lots and lots of years in the service of building, installing and fixing PCB handling machinery at customers facilities, I tell you, that every manufacturer of customer specific machinery would win industry with you employed. You are the golden star of creating quality industrial solutions

[@SmashingBricksAU]

Thank you for answering my question! (The little arm and the bolt heads, the design makes sense now)

[@fuchsbandwurm3630]

Sprichst mir so aus der Seele! Keep on the good work!

[@Saleenmaster1]

You know, its kind of strange how much I felt that video. Especially the first ten minutes. Im about ten months away from starting my second degree and luck would have it, its engineering. I have hopes that this will accelerate my knowledge in that field. But I have and had my doubts about that plan. I do feel like that what Im about to face is an info dump and nothing less. I do dream about starting something just like you and eventually get there I hope. I would love to see more of your perspective on "was bringt mir so ein Studium eigentlich und wars das eigentlich wert" in a longer video. Especially as Im going to start studying not far away from darmstadt myself, Mannheim to be exact, which is much likely going to lean on what Darmstadt is doing.

[@LubosMedovarsky]

Your approach is inspiration for many mechanics enthusiasts. Keep up the great work!

[@fabriziorasore5353]

this project is sick!

[@clint.johnson]

For the Germans that means really really good.

[@johanness6545]

"Die Summe der Komplexitäten bleibt gleich" sagte mal ein Dozent zu mir (quasi der Erfinder von LED und Matrixscheinwerfern für KFZ). Gutes ruhiges erklärendes Video, vor allem die eher philisophischen Teile. Gerne in Zukunft mehr zu den Prinzipien und Abläufen, davon gibt es viel zu wenig qualitativ hochwertiges hier wie dieses Video!

[@aos1611]

"Un ingeniero es una persona que hace que las cosas funcionen bien, o las mejora", a mi me parece que USTED cumple con las cosas que construye, con ser un excelente ingeniero, mejor que muchos que tienen el titulo de una universidad.

[@monkeywrench1951]

Your university and German dropout rates section reminds me of a recent slamt3D interview with the founder of Thangs. He described how unjust the filtering system of German universities was.

[@The.Talent]

I graduated with an associate degrees in mechanical engineering about 2 years ago, and I loved every minute of the education, even the classes I failed. It is really tough finding someone who wants to pay me to fully explore every random avenue of my curiosity no matter what the commercial application may or may not be. So I'm stuck designing cranes and EWPs (which I actually love, but I wish I could do lots of other stuff too). Only part finished your video at the moment but I've run out of time this morning. I'll be back to watch the rest when I get a minute.

[@hahalolxd2945]

I love seeing youre passion about engineering and how you think about everything and how to get the best results with all the things you explained. Thats why i love youre channel you always inspire me

[@andrewjmark100]

As someone who doesn't have an engineering degree, works on similarly niche projects, and overall is heading in a similar direction I relate to your thought process. It is very useful to listen to you talk about the development process and see the progression of a difficult project like this one. Videos like this give me new incites on how I should approach my own work.

[@DustinWill]

Thanks for the background info. Your normal vids are inspirational, but this one is too.

[@LILLJE]

A lot of wise words, you will not have to worry about your future. I can see similarities with myself and I’m a bit older so my 5 cents would be that you keep doing what you believe in. Smart yet humble, great qualities. Wish you all the best in life! I will of course continue to follow your journey.

[@maekeoz]

I liked this. I am a special effects technician, and feel very similarly about thinking constraints and the approach to my work - which is often begun with an assessment of design parameters in view of things like time/available budget/crew competence/safety etc etc. I like to find what I hope will be ‘elegant’ solutions. All design is compromise - you call it trade off. But there is a formulation that will optimise the outcome. That is elegant design. Not necessarily in terms of aesthetic….which is often nice, but usually way more important to others than to me. I mean elegance as optimal and reliable function. I often think about the fact that we talk about selling ‘effects’ but really we are selling reliability in the face of uncertainty. So - very good to get a taste of your thinking in this video and feel resonance. Love to hear more when you get around to that

[@aterxter3437]

I also totally agree about the aspect of not getting stuck into itterative prototyping. Last year, I designed wat has become my biggest and most daring project (I risked my admission into engineering schools on an idea principle found in a failed experiment), despite having better ideas, better versions in the head, going as long as you could go with the first prototype is mandatory in my opinion. You will see all the defects, and circumvent them instead of re-building from scratch which is hugely time expensive. When you will have gone as far as you could, you will have a clear list of the defects to correct, and make a way more functional second prototype. (And yes, I am currently working on the V2.0)

[@MartinZokalj]

Great introduction and I hope that you can keep going on! I think that is perfect important to stress the point of motivation. As mechanical engineer myself I had also trouble to understand why some of universities are motivation killers and not builders. I passed my mechanical engineering degree learning a lot of facts that I didn't understand where and how to apply and drained my energy very often, especially at Zagreb, that has also origin in Germanic university culture by learning a lots of theoretical fact and never questioning them. That was much different when I moved to Denmark but still with some issues to find connection between practial use of all theoretic facts. However, with the practical work in field of plastic manufacturing (working today as senior tooling engineer) some dots started to connect. Therefore I hope that at some point somebody will start to understand a need to make some changes in our educational system.

[@Peter-898]

Loved hearing your background on engineering design and your approach to it! As an engineer whose class had very little instruction (or practical experience) on the design process, you have a lot of valuable insight into the design process that I'd love to see more widespread than it is. Perhaps you would be interested in making a video, blog post, or book about it? As always, loved the video

[@rjb.engineering]

What a great video and sad university did work out for you. I'm about to finish my electo-mechanical degree at Penn State, but that is just the degree. I am helping to build a large 3D printer company right now and I have designed all of the machines we currently sell. And the amount of parts that are modular that swap between each machine is very intuitive and also effective for our builders. I always love watching your videos on the MPS, as it gives me ideas of ways to innovate and look at problems differently.

[@eisbarfan7716]

Danke für diesen spannenden Einblick. An sehr vielen Stellen sprechen Sie mir einfach aus der Seele. Ich wünschte nur, man wäre sich mal in einer Vorlesung begegnet

[@jackolantern610]

Finally. It’s all I wanted to know

[@Alex-xh1zi]

Engineer here - I find your content very interesting and this video was a great insight into your thought process. An engineering degree is just a piece of paper - you certainly possess an engineering mindset which you can't always develop at an institution. I look forward to following along with your projects. Love the old drawing table BTW. It would be great to see a drawing table vs CAD drawing challenge!

[@fabianr.6669]

Cool video! I actually have a similar background with treehouses and such. I would say my way of thinking when it comes to designing and my sense of what constitutes good design align with what you have said in the video. Perhaps starting as a kid with something like a treehouse, where you have lots of consttrains and are limitations that require thinking outside the box and coming up with unique ideas, makes up for this way of thinking.

[@danh9002]

What a great story! Keep up the awesome work!

[@chyrt]

Wow, this video was amazing. I would love more, especially the topics you didn't have time to dive deep for in this video!

[@cherubIII]

Thank you very much for sharing all this. I found it really interesting.

[@thomasfrewer1328]

This is refreshing.

[@fgiunchedi]

Great content, thank you for sharing more about yourself and your ideas! I understand where you are coming from re: open hardware from a business perspective. What's your take on the software side of things? thank you

[@jakobcreates]

I‘m sure you’re more of an engineer than most who finish!

[@onebacon_]

There is no way you name dropped TUD like that. I'm currently in my 5th semester :cries:

[@schlollepop]

Maybe the most German video on KZbin. Has quite a few quotes that would look great on a mug. Any merch to be expected? BTW: Does “StaSi” still exist at TUD EE?

[@akraus53]

Ach ja, die TUD. Ihr habt eine nette Maschinenbau-Fachschaft (und einen ganz hübschen Campus). Ich bin schockiert, dass du mit mir angefangen hast zu studieren. Ich bin noch dabei, noch dieses und nächstes Semester. Bei mir dauerts so lang weil ich die Uni verbessern wollte, statt sie zu verlassen. Grüße von der Uni Stuttgart

[@SlipstreamRecycling]

This is great! Especially the part on constraints leading to better design. Something I’ve thought about a lot but haven’t heard a good discussion on it. Do you think it’s worth imposing artificial constraints to try and force a better design?

[@syntax3rror554]

This is so informative thx :) Please do another video on your philisophies as you mentionend. Would love to hear your thoughts on that.

[@demetriusmichael]

Had the same experience with university in Canada as well unfortunately. High focus on filtering, low quality education.

[@AdditiveParts]

Very enjoyable video

[@SmashingBricksAU]

I really enjoy your content and have actually leant quite a lot as you talk through your design process. Your story is really interesting and I through you were an engineer. How long are the Engineering programs in Germany? after 5 years wouldn't you have been close to finishing? Thanks for sharing your story.

[@SarahKchannel]

Universities are supposed to teach 'how to think, not what to think'. Hence they thought you the most valuable thing - how to think. That makes you more of an engineer then most that will graduate !

[@namocrafts1101]

Nice video my Freind Am looking forward for ur next videos

[@PedroKolbEmmel]

we share the same university story! Brazil is just the same!

[@alienmoonstalker]

As an engineer, let me tell you: you ARE an engineer, whether or not you have a piece of paper from a university. Keep up the good work, and keep learning and innovating!

[@_yonas]

Open hardware or open source don't mean that it is free. You can restrict licenses to free personal usage only, and require commercial partners to purchase the boxes/licenses from you + support agreements, etc. Open projects of course still come with challenges like managing the project, making sure that people don't merge garbage, license enforcement, etc.

[@UhloMuhlo]

What?! No one's gonna acknowledge 28:29? 😂

[@MacLimitRange]

I'm almost sure you have some Italian kin, because of how much you gesture. :D

[@pr5954]

Ist dein ausm Studium kollege rieckrieck?

[@vvviiimmm]

Thanks for sharing. I felt a strong disagreement with some takes and I think I know why -- the tips are aimed towards experienced engineers. IMO: beginners and hobbyists should not spend all of their time thinking about the design and should not try to get everything right on the first try. Iterating is fun, making mistakes is valuable and usually 3d printing is the only manufacturing tool available.

[@ReptexPro]

Super gutes Video!

[@christopherhelmke]

Vielen Dank!

[@davidreis7152]

Inspiring

[@Mitch3D]

I don't agree with the lazy or stupid for dropping out. I believe it's more people joining a university program that doesn't fit them because they feel compelled to get the degree that makes them the most successful. There are many dropouts that have gone on to work in other fields and be hard working and intelligent in those fields. I appreciate the story about your journey and the MPS,

[@handdancin]

for people in america, is that university the equivalent to somewhere like MIT? i really enjoy your philosophical ideas, ive had alot of similar thoughts without realizing it

[@antoniocross5956]

Want to read some cool books about constrains? Then I can recommend you 2 Books of Goldratt: The Goal and It's not luck. Cheers from Bavaria

[@mully006]

I disagree about your comment on trade-offs in engineering. I agree that trade-offs can be used as an excuse for poor design or laziness, however they still exist in good designs. At some point every design needs to finish so there is always a trade-off between design time and the final result. Engineers can always continue to brainstorm and evaluate new and better ideas, however at some point the project needs to finish. Development time/cost, expertise and motivation are also parameters in the design process and they are finite. Using your phone example, maybe there is a "perfect phone" that is small and has great battery life, however realizing this design requires expertise that the engineer does not have. The "imperfect phone" is a trade-off between delivering the best product and the time/cost expand the engineers skillset to create the "perfect design".

[@jairo.cabello]

I think his point is more about trade-offs being a result instead of a limitation. You will have trade-offs as a result of your most important constraints. Your constraints are ultimately what determines your tradeofs. But if you design already with a tradeof on mind, you're on a feedback loop to a design that could've been better.

[@rodikiro2598]

Hallo Christopher, Ich wollte dich fragen, ob du vielleicht Unterstützung bei der Konstruktion brauchst? Ich bin Ingenieur in der Automatisierungstechnik und suche nach der Art von Projekten die du realisierst. Ich denke wir haben einen ähnlichen Werdegang und ich kann mir gut vorstellen mit dir zusammenzuarbeiten. Falls Interesse besteht einfach eine Nachricht senden und wir können uns weiterunterhalten. Liebe Grüße

[@brynyard]

Ahem, nice to know your general background. But for someone who's not yet that experienced in engineering, you have a lot of very strong opinions and absolute "truths", which unfortunately is just your limited personal experience, attempted to be packaged as wisdom that everyone should heed as facts. They are not, and they will (hopefully, as that would mean you're learning) change.

[@cichym]

😊

[@andrew48dhs]

My guy, you are in fact an engineer. You did n9t get a piece of paper that says you are indoctrinated to be an engineer. Anybody looking at your channel and work can see you are a better engineer than most of the engineering workforce of today. I got a degree in engineering and you are more effective than 99% of my graduating classmates

[@Thomas_de_Meijer]

Just wanted to comment a couple of things for those aspiring engineers reading the comments. There are a lot of interesting points here, but also a lot that I strongly disagree with as an experienced engineer. In particular some of the comments about modularity etc. really show a lack of exposure to how many companies operate. I would encourage everyone to always critically evaluate where any advice comes from, and someone who has studied and then mainly worked for himself is not really in a position to have lots of opinions about what other engineers are doing wrong or how they think. The design process advice presented here is also pretty unconventional. Everyone has their own way of approaching these things that works for them, so don't feel like you're doing it wrong if smashing out a perfectly working design first try isn't happening for you! I personally like to mess around with stuff physically, not just look on a computer screen to come to a solution.

[@christopherhelmke]

Totally agree on critically evaluate where any advice comes from. I could be completely wrong(!) even though I (obviously) don't think so. Thank you for your comment and your opinion, there should generally be more respectful discussion about design approaches. What material are you designing for mostly? I would guess metall but might be off?

[@harrie205]

Sehr interesantes Video

[@4th_wall511]

Test

[@TheSmenni]

[@conceptor]

What an engineer do? Engineering.

[@Ender_Wiggin]

Please read the question next time! I know this is video but sometimes I like to put it in the background. I had to wait to watch it with more attention because of this and i lost interest and started watching other videos. Not much of this video really needed the video

[@sierraecho884]

Explain the German education system in one quick sentence: "Low quality of teaching"

[@wildniscamper7276]

bitte erkläre, warum du diesen hebel der sich für die zylinderschraubenköpfe hebt verwendest, statt senkschrauben zu verwenden u sich den ganzen hebekrims zu sparen... mir erschließt sich der sinn nicht... btw iwie lustig, dass in den kommentaren lauter deutsche "englisch" mitanander reden😂👌 wer weltoffen sein will kann demnächst dann auf chinesisch schreiben..

[@immeramtilten9935]

Er sagt, dass die Schrauben nicht der Befestigung dienen, sonder der Erhöhung der feeding Rate… somit wären Senkkopfschrauben sehr fehl am Platz. Mit mehr englisch untereinander wäre das vom Verständnis her bestimmt aufgefallen ;)

[@wildniscamper7276]

​@@immeramtilten9935 hab 2 jahre in canada gelebt.. wenn er also sagt "i never was a good pupil - he actually means: "i have never been a good pupil"..weil die handlung in der vergangenheit begonnen hat und noch immer anhält..sowas hört man dann ständig falsch und am ende kann keiner mehr ordentlich englisch lernen... aber egal fand es eben lustig wie jetzt jeder einen auf international macht aber die welt den bach runter geht weil wir nur sinnlosen müll entwickeln u uns dann dafür abfeiern.. und wie genau der hebelarm jetzt die fördermenge erhöhen soll ist mir unklar..

[@DawidKellerman]

5 million views.. Its easy You are humble and your content is of the very highest quality! You are one of the very few channels I will stop other things to watch on release! comment and liked 21 seconds in .

[@nardhb]

writing my bachelor thesis in Bremen Germany at the moment after struggling with university for six years. I can really empathize with having many side projects and the reasons you dropped out. I was on the edge of doing so myself several times. The combination of bad teaching and hard exams is like you said really frustrating. The worst part for me was that there were many courses were the lecturer couldn't bring across why some theoretical principle is worth learning or what real world application there is. So I often had the feeling only learning for the exam and not to solve future engineering problems. I think our society puts to much value in your degree and not in what your capable of. Love your videos and have the feeling that you know what your talking about. Keep up the great work!

[@pemetzger]

The purpose of engineering school should be to create great engineers. If the school is nothing but a way of finding out who will tolerate mindlessly bad teachers and unpleasant tasks, then it is not fulfilling its purpose. By contrast, actually designing and building things in the real world teaches engineering beautifully; it should not be looked on as a lesser activity, since being able to design well is the entire goal of the training.

[@MCasterAnd]

I dropped out even before I went to a university, I dropped out of high school. I wanted to study programming or computer engineering as this was my main hobby, however I had to go through the hurdle (like everyone else) of going to boring subjects and lessons of high school. I could not focus at all in those classes, even if I wanted to, so I stopped going. I would much rather do the things I enjoyed. Many years later I got a decent paying job within the tech sector. I'm happier than ever before, and after the interview I learned that there were quite a few other people who were being interviewed for the same job who had degrees in computer science etc., but who ultimately did not get the role. I guess I managed to convince the company that spending 15 years in front of the computer teaches you a thing or two. I am so utterly happy that I dropped out. I'm not even sure if I would have still been alive if I had moved forward with going to a university. Still though, there's a lot of stigma with being uneducated. I wish it was more normal to take a different path.

[@pemetzger]

@@MCasterAnd It is very routine for people in the US without degrees to be hired in computer programming roles, and I know of no stigma associated with it. People look down on people without talent, not people without degrees. That said, I think it's always useful to go through the topics that one would have learned in school if one had been there, especially stuff like data structures, algorithms, automata theory, and parsing. Knowledge is the important part, not the piece of paper.

[@Ueberrusher]

03:09 LOL, I thought to myself, doesn't that guy look like the Architecture/Civil Engineering KZbinr? What a coincidence :)

[@RickRieck]

😂

[@Marc42]

As a Wiesbaden born, TU Darmstadt educated mechancial engineer who took until the PhD programme to finally drop out, let me tell you one thing: You are living a true engineer's best life! What you perceive as a lack in the coveted Dipl.-Ing. category you more than make up for in highly relevant hands-on experience which will always be by your side - unlike the established educational system, whose favours you can fall out of before you even expect it. It didn't happen to me personally to any great extent, but I have by now had enough years of real-life experience to acknowledge the unfortunate reality. Real skills trump degrees, every single time.

[@KeithSachs]

i get so excited when i see you've uploaded haha, i really love your videos and am super happy you're here. Thanks for making these projects into content for us

[@HansJPfisterer]

Ein seltsames aber sehr ehrliches Video Danke!! Bin grad in einer ähnlichen Situation und schon gespannt auf deine nächsten Ideen!

[@EdwinSteiner]

As you said, many people probably drop out because they should drop out but if the university terminally frustrates someone like you, it feels like there is something wrong in the system. I wish you a lot of success as an inventor and founder. We need people with your combination of rationality and creativity. BTW, I'm skeptical about your claim about SpaceX. I think it is too early to tell how successful and economical their approach is compared to the great things NASA, for example, has achieved and is still achieving. Right now SpaceX is burning a lot of investor money.

[@Ivan.Wright]

You claimed not to be an engineer because you didn't finish college? I hope you only mean that from the perspective of gatekeeping academics and not from the core defining attributes of what an engineer really is.

[@ikbendusan]

he has no title nor is he doing engineering professionally, therefore he is not an engineer even if he can perform similar tasks. it's more about the semantics of the word engineer and who gets to be called an engineer rather than what being an engineer really means. christopher will agree with this.

[@Ivan.Wright]

@@ikbendusan What sort of title and with who's consensus is required in your view, and in what manner would one have to work to be considered doing said work "professionally"? I ask in good faith for your thoughtful reply.

[@ikbendusan]

@@Ivan.Wright in my view you are a professional when there are stakeholders that rely on your work and you are held accountable if your work doesn't perform like you said it would do. if you're just making shit, you're a maker or a diy product designer. i'm an engineer because i _did_ successfully go through the hardship of getting that degree (and therefore the title of engineer) and applying it to the real world. i think it's absurd to award a prestigious title to a person that did not find the motivation or was otherwise not able to pull through the aforementioned hardship

[@Ivan.Wright]

@@ikbendusan I ask that you consider the case where the primary stakeholder is the engineer themself. This case fits your criteria for professional, unless your position runs deeper into the perspective of corporate and state industry, in which case I'd ask for your opinion on startups and the like. Your conception of what makes you an engineer, where did you develop this? I assume within the context of German academia? I understand how academia can help develop a person's skill in engineering but I don't understand how academia is considered the soul distributer of the title. If the title is to be granted to those who have completed the prescribed work then presumably the ability to properly perform said work is the constructed measure for if one can be given the title. That means anyone who can perform the prescribed work(or equivalent variation), regardless of their position in or outside of academia, are fit to hold the title. I don't see how ones ability to endure the "hardship" of the academic machine can be considered a requirement for the distinction 'engineer'. I mean, I get it from the perspective of an authoritarian bureaucracy with a selection bias for workers that will conform to their established industrial environments. From the perspective of using the word to encapsulate the attributes that makes that person that thing, in this case a person who engages in engineering within their respective domain of physical phenomena, I have to conclude that the title engineer is not constrained to distribution by some academic authority. Though the attributes of 'engineer' can be defined by academia, for academia to demand to be part of the path one takes to becoming worthy of said title I think forms an unwarranted monopoly who's definition strays away from the attribute they were originally training and testing you for. But those are just my thoughts, I think they're logically consistent.

[@ikbendusan]

@@Ivan.Wright are you an engineer?

[@advancedmicrosystems4658]

My humor is probably broken but the "scene" at 28:28 is pure comedy. So dry, so german, so stupidly flat, and still incredibly funny.

[@el_XiloX]

Had to scroll way to much for this... i think the joke is he left it in on purpose and i find that hilarious x_D

[@pemetzger]

You claim, at one point, that because you didn't graduate you are not an engineer. This might be true in some technical sense in German law (I know little or nothing about that as a person who lives on another continent), but this is completely false in any realistic sense. "Engineer" is not a piece of paper, it is a way of thinking, a calling, a set of skills and the desire to use them to design and build new things in the world. You are an engineer. Never doubt that. And, if Germany insists that you're not because you are merely a person skilled at engineering but have no magic piece of paper, move to a place like the United States where no one cares about such things and your skill, your desire to build new things, and your entrepreneurial drive would be appreciated, and where no one would dare say you are not an engineer. Also, you spend time justifying why manufacturing is important to the world. It should be obvious to all of us. The comfortable and safe lives we lead are possible only because of the skill of a vast number of dedicated engineers who have built up the world's manufacturing infrastructure. Never let anyone tell you otherwise, never take anyone who tells you otherwise seriously.

[@colorscream]

Any updates on the project?

[@christopherhelmke]

new video coming tomorrow

[@marcus3d]

Nice content, but I absolutely hate that the questions were silent in an otherwise listenable video.

[@ibimsfroelich3346]

I found this to be your most interesting episode yet. I differ quite a bit from you, finding my mechanical engineering studies at TU Dresden somewhat easy and interesting, but can only admire your work. I think you‘re on a great path, most likely better than most regular students like me. I lack motivation in doing projects like yours, mainly because I‘m really into some sports but also because I have‘nt found any niche that I think I may be successful with. Having said that, I really enjoy you talking about engineering philosophy, it teaches me much more than what I can learn from your actual projects (wich are also so interesting!) I would love to be able to sit down and chat with you some day, but for now just keep making these awesome videos please. Cheers

[@jackolantern610]

I take it back in even more fascinated There needs to be a manifesto of Helmke Tao of Christopher Tesla, Steve Wozniak and dieter rams This guy is up there

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I resonate and agree with so much of what is said here! I have a mechanical engineering degree from the US but I think a lot of the "top tier" universities here are similar to how you describe the school you dropped out of - many lectures are taught by teaching assistants since the professors are only worried about keeping their research paper output in order to get tenure, or enjoying the fact its nearly impossible to fire tenured professors. I run a company selling hobby combat robotics parts and kits, I am pretty sure I'll be making use of the MPS someday when I have larger order volumes and more space. The one robot kit I sell currently has 132 individual parts, about half of which are fasteners of a bunch of types and sizes. It is such a massive pain to make these but profit margin is just barely worth it. I would love having an affordable and reliable way to automate things. I even bought a screw counting machine since one fastener I have 36 of in the kit, and it broke within the first 6 months of extremely occasional use...

[@dewexdewex]

Very good communication and a fantastic and honest insight into the mind of a great engineer. You'll continue to do great things.

[@alexforget]

Schools are dying, I regret most of the years I spend in engineering for the same reasons.

[@watchingwatches7863]

I'm also studying at the TuD mechanical engineering. The problem with lectures is that a lot of them are just theoretical deriving the formulas you need to understand on how to use them in the exam. So often these are completely irrelevant for the exams. This means you need to rely on the quality of the exercises they give you. Unfortunately often the quality of the solving approach aren't well documented and they skip a few steps so it's hard to follow or in the worst case just give you the final answer, so you have no idea what you did wrong. In the exams they intentionally give you too little time so you not only have to solve complex problems, but do so under the pressure of time, which leads to small errors. These small errors however are punished harshly so you might lose most of the points. They don't give you points for what you did right. Instead they subtract points for everything you did wrong. This is why mostly you just need 37% to pass the test. This way they ensure just 30-40% fail the exams. If they set the bar to 50% up to 80% of people fail (happened last semester with E-tech). The only way to get some real world experience is doing side projects in your free time, but this takes away time from studying. There are a few courses (about 3) which are practical, but those normally take a lot of time and don't have that many CPs. Most of the stuff is so theoretical that you have no idear how to actually use it. But for some reason I still enjoy it (5 semester). I think they don't actually teach you to be an engineer, but think like one. Most people have bad grades in bachelor and have good grades in their masters, where you actually do something you are interested in and it is closer to real problems.

[@jakeaustin901]

Do you have a link to your sale page? I would love to help support you guys and what you're doing.

[@robertobrenes5283]

I'm finishing engineering studies and feel so unattached to the university and I understand your thoughts, at the same time I have a really interesting and engaging project for my thesis that made me think of engineering not as a study field but much more as a set of skills in life to get things done despite academic focus

[@CodeMotion4yt]

Thanks for the tips you inspired me to make better designs 👌

[@Fearox]

I really have to say, you come across as humble and absolutely intelligent. The designtheory/-philosophy sequence was very interesting and I envy the way you think. I'm eager to follow your journey and wish you the best of success! Grüße aus NRW

[@julius2064]

I would love to hear more about your design philosophy, especially that constrain thing made me thinking