In this week's newsletter, Aaron Moncur has a conversation with Ryan Stevenson, freelance mechanical engineer and organizer of the Boise Hardware Meetup, with experience ranging from Apple's Vision Pro development to locomotive manufacturing and outdoor gear innovation.
100% of the work I've gotten has been through former co workers. Connections of former co workers, friends of friends... That's your team, right? The people you've met and worked with in the past.
In this episode:
How staying connected to former coworkers generates all freelance engineering opportunities without active marketing
Why Apple Vision Pro's light seal required analyzing face geometry data across populations to reach seven final SKUs while preventing optics from crashing into eyeballs during falls
How ChatGPT accelerates component selection by searching 10,000-page catalogs and finding VHB tape specifications or pogo pin options in minutes instead of hours
Why research shows engineers with imposter syndrome typically outperform extraordinarily confident colleagues who overestimate their abilities
Bonus Content:
Engineering Leadership Vs. Technical Depth. Why the Dual-Track Career Model Fails.
S6 E44 Ryan Stevenson | Working on Apple’s Vision Pro & Launching a Freelance Engineering Business
Ryan Stevenson's path from Apple's Vision Pro team to independent freelance engineering reveals an unexpected pattern: every single client came through former professional relationships, not marketing or cold outreach. His work on Vision Pro's light seal involved wrestling with massive datasets on facial diversity, structural safety calculations to prevent injury, and the challenge of condensing that complexity into seven commercially viable SKUs. After taking a year off to explore day trading and other ventures, he returned to engineering with a different approach - using AI tools like ChatGPT to compress catalog searches from hours to minutes, prototyping aggressively to fail early, and building community through the Boise Hardware Meetup. The freelance reality he describes isn't glamorous startup mythology but rather honest education about timelines, consistent relationship maintenance, and accepting that imposter syndrome might actually signal competence rather than weakness.
>If YouTube isn’t your thing, check out this episode and all of our past episodes on Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.
Stop. Before you automate that manual process step-by-step, read this.
In the 1890s, inventors tried to ease the transition from horses to automobiles by building "horseless carriages" - mechanical contraptions with articulated metal legs, rein-based steering, and fake horse heads housing lamps. They were solving the wrong problem. The answer wasn't replicating a horse. It was rethinking transportation entirely.
Modern automation projects make the same mistake. Your manual process evolved around human capabilities. Operators compensate for variation, use visual judgment, make micro-adjustments. Automating these workarounds directly creates complex, unreliable systems.
Pipeline Design & Engineering’s focus? Solving for the optimal outcome. Clear, reliable, effective.
Don't automate the workaround. Solve the actual problem.
Evaluating automation? Pipeline has solved this puzzle 100+ times.
Professional Relationships as Revenue Pipeline
When Stevenson left Apple to return to Boise, he spent a year trying different approaches to making money. Day trading. Other ventures. None of it stuck. What brought him back to engineering wasn't a marketing plan or business development strategy.
I had a buddy of mine I used to work with at Cascade. He reached out and said, 'Are you looking for work?' At the time, I wasn't working. I was like, 'Sure, why not?
That single conversation put the idea in his head: why not keep doing this indefinitely?
100% of the work I've gotten has been through former co workers. Connections of former co workers, friends of friends... Stay in touch with people you know and the people you've worked with, because they're going to vouch for you if you've done quality work.
The pattern repeats across every project he's taken on. No cold emails. No elaborate sales funnels. Just text messages to people he'd worked alongside years earlier.
We're so connected these days, but I find even myself being distant from former friends. I don't know why it's so easy just to send a text. Stay in touch with your friends. Stay in touch with your former co workers.
The reality of freelancing differs sharply from the paycheck cadence of corporate employment. No consistent income. No PTO forms. Just the direct exchange of time for money, which means if you're not actively finding work, you're not getting paid. But Stevenson prefers working with small and medium-sized businesses, clients who come in without deep knowledge of manufacturing processes.
a
Engineering Leadership Vs. Technical Depth. Why the Dual-Track Career Model Fails.
The conventional wisdom that engineers must choose between technical excellence and leadership responsibility is a false dichotomy that emerged from organizational convenience, not from studying how effective engineering leaders actually work. History's most successful engineering leaders like Kelly Johnson at Lockheed's Skunk Works remained deeply technical while leading some of the most complex programs ever undertaken. The dual-track model solves an HR problem while creating a leadership crisis.
For more, visit the full article on The Wave.
Think your manufacturer keeps screwing up your circuit boards? The problem might be the design itself, setting them up to fail before they even start assembly.
On December 4th, Chris Denney is running a free webinar that walks through the most common PCB design mistakes that frustrate manufacturers and how to prevent them.
Your Manufacturer is Stupid – What's Really Going Wrong in PCB Design
This is a 45-minute session focused on practical DFM issues that create real problems on the manufacturing floor. No vendor pitches, no abstract theory, just specific design decisions that make assembly harder than it needs to be.
📅 Date: Dec 4, 2025 @ 8:00 AM PT / 11:00 EST
📍 Location: Microsoft Teams (link provided upon registration)
💰 Cost: Free
Who should attend:
This webinar is built for mechanical engineers who want to understand how board layout and design choices impact manufacturability, cost, and communication with electrical teams. You'll learn the fundamentals that let you collaborate more effectively with PCB manufacturers and avoid expensive surprises when boards move to production.
Electrical engineers will pick up real-world DFM insights they can apply immediately to improve yield and reduce rework.
You'll learn how to:
Identify design choices that complicate PCB assembly unnecessarily
Communicate more effectively with PCB vendors and electrical teammates
Design in ways that reduce rework, waste, and frustration across the boar