In this episode:

Bonus Content:

Scott Heimendinger spent four years in a spare bedroom turning $2,000+ industrial ultrasonic cutting technology into a consumer chef's knife. He validated resonance patterns with popcorn salt instead of $10,000/week laser vibrometers. He built a robot to test 21 popular knives with 100,000 data points because no performance data existed. The result: 50% less cutting force through piezo crystal vibrations at 10-micron amplitude. From reverse-engineering $1,200 sous vide machines into $75 DIY builds to surviving a deal collapse in the 11th hour, this is the story of bringing industrial precision to home kitchens through quantified testing and stubborn persistence.

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You’ve Built an Amazing Career. So Why Does It Feel Like Something’s Missing?

You’ve spent years doing what engineers do best: solving problems, taking on responsibility, and building a solid career.

From the outside, it looks like success.

But behind the resume and the routine, something feels off.

And despite everything you’ve achieved, a quiet question keeps surfacing:

Is this it?

Many engineers reach a stage where external success stops being enough. Not because something is wrong, but because what they value has evolved. The pull shifts from simply climbing higher to becoming more aligned. More energized. More present at home. More connected to work that actually matters.

That’s the space Actively Human exists to serve.

The Second Summit is Actively Human’s flagship 8-week group coaching experience for engineers and technical professionals who’ve reached external success and are ready to intentionally design what’s next.

This program is for you if:

· You’re 10+ years into your engineering career and something feels misaligned

· You’re a parent who wants to be present without stalling your career

· You’re exhausted even though, on paper, everything looks fine

· You quietly wonder why success doesn’t feel the way you expected

The program is led by Jake Kennington, PE, SE, a licensed structural engineer who spent over a decade in high-pressure engineering before redefining success and building Actively Human to help others do the same.

You don’t need to burn it all down.

You just need a new way forward.

Consumer knife reviews follow a pattern. Publications buy 20 chef's knives, chop onions, and declare favorites based on feel and appearance. Heimendinger saw the gap immediately.

As a former Microsoft Excel team member, he found it unacceptable. So he built the testing infrastructure himself, attaching knives to a six-axis robot arm and placing high-precision laboratory scales underneath the food.

The scope required serious commitment. He wrote custom software to control the movements and gather force data. Then he locked himself in his office with massive quantities of test materials.

The data revealed what subjective reviews couldn't: quantified performance differences between knives across different cutting tasks. Then he made a decision that sets this work apart from typical proprietary testing.

I first read Greg McKeown's "Essentialism" as a grad student and thought I understood the thesis about focusing on the vital few over the trivial many. I didn't actually understand it until I had my first child last year. That inevitable night at 2 AM, holding a seven-pound bundle of joy while calculating the work that still needed to get done, made the concept both imperative and impossible at the same time. The word "priority" was singular for 500 years before we pluralized it in the 1900s, and McKeown argues we spread ourselves too thin trying to juggle multiple priorities. Parenthood forced me to confront what happens when life changes faster than your carefully planned reset can accommodate. What I discovered: essentialism isn't about perfect discipline or fixed priorities - it's about continuously redefining what's essential as circumstances shift, and the yearly reset became the framework for that ongoing redefinition.

Read the full article here on The Wave.

Last year, a customer couldn't find a shop willing to make their part. Difficult material, tight tolerances, small quantity.

We tested our internal supply chain. Made the parts ourselves. Sent them as a surprise.

They worked perfectly. That customer has ordered hundreds more since.

Now available: custom machined parts with Pipeline engineering oversight, pricing that outperforms domestic shops, and the same supply chain we trust for our own work.

Want to learn more? Contact us at the link below: