Underrated Manufacturing & EE Interview Prep

Highlights this week: Underrated Manufacturing, EE Interview Prep, Spinning Payloads into Space.

• 🔗 Last issue’s most-clicked link: Electric Current Exposed, Myth and Theory.

Interesting Links 🔗:

• Elon: Design is overrated, manufacturing is underrated. “There’s 10,000% more work that goes into designing the production system than designing the thing itself”. Great off-the-cuff short interview clip. Breaks the concept/misconception down in the best, most simple way I’ve heard.
• I used this book to prep for EE interviews at Tesla, Taser, and SpaceX. I got job offers at all of the above, and the EE whiteboard questions all came down the basics explained clearly in the teaching-edition of The Art of Electronics. Lesser known sister to the main book most EE’s have in their library. Intuitive explanations and examples.
• Custom transformers + leakage inductance considerations. Leakage inductance is largely a function of the spacing between the primary and secondary windings. Small dimensions can make a big difference. Skill and repeatability are crucial in transformer manufacturing. Good lessons-learned in magnetics design, basics of power transformers, and some great further-reading references.
• SpinLaunch wants to spin objects up to 5,000mph and launch them upward, where a small booster will take them all the way into space. It’s an ambitious goal, but the laws of physics might be standing in the way. Can the payload survive spin-up? Liquid or solid rocket fuel? Can the payload handle the immense atmospheric drag force? (rockets pick up speed as they travel higher -- spinlaunch payloads will be at their highest speeds at the beginning where atmosphere is thickest).
• Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. Great podcast on his life, philosophies, engineering, and more. “I realized I’d been working more than 12 hours a day, every day, for basically all of the last 50 years. And I’m having a good time, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to mostly do things that add energy to me rather than taking it away.”
• As competition and tensions heighten between our nation and China, it looks increasingly alarming that 78% of our rare earth imports, 62% of our electronics imports, and up to 50% of our lithium-ion battery imports come from China. Great writeup from Countdown Capital on the reshoring dilemma and what we can do about it in the short term.
• Design and Modeling of Wave Guide to Micro Strip Line transitions. Great video with technical breakdown by Mohamed K. Nezami, Ph.D.

One Interesting Picture 📸: elon leaving in-person review + rally at 1am, twitter hq