FABTECH, community, and normalcy

Yesterday I listened to former New York Times Elaine Sciolino’s interview with Teri Gross on NPR’S Fresh Air. She’s covered terrorist attacks for ages, and she made one observation that made me pause. The attack, she said, was an attack normal people doing normal things: students and workers with family support, those who don’t worry about where the next meal, bomb, or bullet will come from.

I can’t begin to think of why terror happens, but it does help me not to take things for granted.

At first, the devastating news on Friday made all my notes from the past week at FABTECH seem insignificant. Who cares if 3-D printing, a sector in its infancy, may be hitting a small, albeit still significant, growth spurt? Or about the fact that communications—between people, machines, and automation (i.e., Industry 4.0) –may well drive the next generation of manufacturers? Or the fact that besides fiber and disk lasers, the industry may see more high-powered direct-diode cutting lasers in the months and years ahead?

All of it sounds so “normal.” It’s not about ethnic strife or epic human struggles. It’s about profit and losses, new electronic and mechanical wizardry, and new ways of thinking on the job. Ho hum.

But after yesterday’s insights from Scioliono, I’m diving into those notes with new vigor. The normalcy of it all in this business—the engagement with coworkers, the company picnics, the continuous improvement, and of course the continually improving technology;mdash&makes metal fabrication a very human business. The hate we witnessed in Paris was most certainly not.