See You At Maker Faire Detroit On Saturday

I'll be at Maker Faire Detroit on Saturday, July 31st along with my cousin Brock of RCE-Cast supercomputing fame and Adam who is a practicing coolant engineer at the particle accelerator at MSU. All three of us are Michigan natives with Brock working in Ann Arbor, and Adam in Lansing, and I, a deserter in Massachusetts. I'm really excited that they are hosting an official Maker Faire in Detroit. I grew up in Michigan and eventually decided to leave the area due to not being able to find any interesting work within the state or any work at all. During my time growing up, from the 1980's, Michigan was filled with manufacturing jobs and inter tangled heavily with the automotive industry. My dad ran his own car repair business and would always task me with things like helping him pick up and deliver vehicles, hauling broken vehicles and parts around, as well as the most boring jobs like sanding rust off of metal. It honestly made me hate the traditional automotive industry which is why I wanted nothing to do with it.

The old guard in Michigan doesn't seem to be able to see past the manufacturing mentality, and there have been a plethora of unskilled workers draining the states economy since the US automotive industry started faltering. An example of a ridiculous attempt to try and spur business in my home county in Michigan, Shiawassee; is the Shiawassee economic development partnership. They put on the front of trying to help business, but the only business they cater to are established manufacturing firms. Their listings of $100,000+ manufacturing properties are laughable. Way to NOT spur new innovative business in your community.

It would be exciting if there were more opportunities outside of manufacturing in areas other than Ann Arbor. The state should be ripe with cheap facilities and incentives. I'm really thankful that I had access to the Internet to be able to know what was going on outside of my home state while growing up in places like California and Massachusetts.