Holiday season musings

My son got back home yesterday for his first holiday after his 1st Semester Mechanical Engineering. I was catching up with him on his academics and life a fresher, when I asked him a question about Engineering Drawing.

Fondly remembering my engineering days of carting wooden T-squares, (which I most of the time would imagine to be a machine gun of sorts – my boyhood was spent reading “Commando Comics” – if that’s a mystery, well then it’s a subject for another post :) ), and spending what felt like an eternity drawing evenly spaced 45 degree hash lines while hunched most uncomfortably over chart paper clamped to a wooden board, I asked my son

“ So do you still use T-Squares for engineering drawing?” 

“What’s a T-Square, Dad?” he responded.

I wish I could capture the look of bemused surprise when I explained to him what a T-Square was and how it worked.

“Dad, everything is digital. We use engineering software to design the object, create the specs and then send the design drawing to the 3D Printer to see how it’s actually turned out. Problem to prototype can take less than hour.”

Even though I work with change in people, teams, and organisations on a daily basis, I must admit to being a bit overwhelmed by knowing that an object of my simultaneous love and derision, the humble yet heft-ful T-Square has also been transformed digitally and has gone the path of so many analog components of our lives.

I reached out and gave my son a hug, just to capture that moment into memory, and as I hugged him a thought crossed my mind.

” Now, a hug is something you can’t really transform digitally, or can you? “ ??????

Wishing you and your loved ones all the very best for this holiday season, and best wishes for the New Year. And don't forget to hug them. The old fashioned way :)

Cheers,

Krish

#digitaldisruption #digitaltransformation