Author Description

Over a lifetime decisions on one's next action are made every hour. This novel portrays the life of an engineer as he applies engineering logic and scientific principles to life's decisions. The results provide some degree of control over his success, failures, and overall happiness. Karl Schmidt's life as it unfolds in this book is exciting, loving, painful, business like, and creative. He grows from childhood in a small town to an accomplished engineer. He is a designer with patents, a founder of two companies, and a world traveler with a wonderful family. Karl has an affair which turns his engineered life in a new direction. Engineers are wired with a mind that controls some of the life process for substantial accomplishments. However, the engineered life also has tragic events that result from a lack of sound judgment and control. Tragedy is a key part of this story. Engineers have an incredible impact on everyone's quality of life. They use scientific solutions in the design of functional, producible, marketable products. In this book some of the old ways of life are contrasted with the new. Smart phones, internet social networking, and hybrid cars replace old fashioned live talks and gas guzzlers. Lessons are learned that rapid growing technology influences over Karl's children's and grandchildren's lives are not always superior to lifestyles of the past. But life goes on in different ways and Karl accepts that with his amazing nonjudgmental approach to everything. A key principle in product design is recognizing and providing solutions to problems that might occur with its future use. Karl attempts to apply principles of product design to his life decisions. The result is a true to life adventure where thinking ahead, being more analytical and less emotional, and working hard at one loves to do results in true contentment.