From time to time, I still get there, but it is not as easy or long-lasting as it used to be.

What I am talking about is what I call The Zone.

It is a state of concentration that is so intensely focused, you are almost in a hypnotic state – oblivious to everything and everyone around you. It is just you and the die.

I used to be able to reach The Zone at will. But, these days it is increasingly difficult.

Why? Interest and concentration is an issue. Most of the time, it is a matter of distractions. See, to reach The Zone, to get to that state of mind, distractions have to be at zero. I like my surroundings to be quiet to enable me to reach that hypnotic state of mind.

These days there are way too many distractions in the workplace. People talking and laughing. Email. Phone calls. Mobile phone buzzing. Text messages. Meetings. Real-time chat. Earthquakes. You name it.

Then, there is YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook (which I still don’t “get”), Twitter, and other online distractions.

Top it off with someone wanting to go play ping pong or fire up a bong and The Zone becomes a desire and not a destination.

The problem for me is when I do hit The Zone, I like to be there for 6, 8, 12 hours at a time. I have yet to have those kinds of stretches of time in the 21st century. Sign of the times I guess.

You know, all this technology promised to make life simpler and faster. All it has done for me is make it more complex and slower.

Or, maybe I am just getting old and grumpy.

This got me thinking about how much change we have seen in the die business in the past 20 years.

Most in the business today take solid modeling and formability simulation for granted.

When I got started, it was all manual. The only computer we had to rely on was our brain.

Die processing was done from pure experience. Tipping panels was done by picking points with dividers. Manually. On mylar layouts.

Binder developments were constructed two-dimensionally in the drafting room before a plaster model was built in the die room.

Dies were designed on vertical boards and drafting machines. With paper and pencil.

Today, a panel is tipped in a single mouse click.

A few mouse clicks later, the addendum is developed.

Click another button and the computer will run the formability simulation in the time it takes to go get a coffee.

In fact, you can process, quote, run simulation, and design a die on a laptop computer while sipping on a Venti White Mocha at your favorite Starbucks coffee shop if you really wanted to.

That is convenience.

Most people have become reliant on technology. When my cell phone died and I was getting ready to drive 2,000 miles across the country, my family thought I was crazy to go without a new phone.

“I drove cross-country without one just fine 15 years ago,” was my response.

To me, technology is just a tool. But, it is only useful if the technology makes things simpler or faster. Technology should not be a substitute for making sound engineering decisions.

Just like the mobile phone, I don’t need a piece of software to tip a panel or process a job. But, having the technology at your fingertips does make things easier.

Technology is really just a matter of convenience.

I stumbled across one of my favorites … and I would like to share it here:

When I saw a die design for an automotive body stamping for the first time, it was a confusing sea of intersecting lines drawn on paper with a pencil. Bond and H-lead to be exact. The only real choice was 36- or 42-in.- wide bond. Sure, some designers used HB lead, but the only decision was between wood pencils or the mechanical variety.

We designed on vertical boards 8 ft. high and 15 ft. long. We only had two types of drafting machines: Emmert and Vemco.

Those were the simple days. Jeff Baltzer used to pace up and down the bay chanting “Lines, boys. Lines.” And he could spot a bad die condition from 30 yards.

The reality today is a seemingly infinite parade of technologies, consultants and three-letter abbreviations.We live in a world where chaos reigns. This chaos is perpetuated by too many choices offered by too many consultants and experts with too many three-letter abbreviations for engineering and manufacturing technologies.

For a PDF of the entire article, please click here.

When a geek tells me about some cool functionality that only a PhD would understand, I respond with “who cares?”. If the answer to that question does not boil it down to a time or money savings for the end user, then the answer is in the question.

This mantra is not limited to functionality. It also extends to the user interface.

Some companies obsess over their look and feel to the point of considering it to be proprietary. Who cares? Probably no one.

Here is the acid test for the user interface design: If you can answer “yes” to one or more of the following, then your UI matters.

• My competitors have copied my user interface design.
• My competitors have hired away my user interface designers.
• My competitors have hired a user of my software as a consultant for the user interface design.

In most cases, the UI is a secondary benefit to the user. Functionality that provides a time and cost benefit to the mass market is the only thing that matters.