I’m a robotics engineer. I build real, physical robots. Specifically right now farming robots. There’s no digital or VR version of a robot that’s going to grow food you can eat.

Buying from mail order is okay for off the shelf parts but what about custom parts like PCBs and machined parts? And what do you do when you get your mouser order and realize you forgot something important? Having options nearby just means more speed. And that’s what I’m talking about. We’re settling for slower speed than is possible and I don’t like that. They don’t settle for slow in Shenzhen I don’t see why we should.

I think the design may become digitalized, machined parts are still available in the us around me it is very popular. 3D printers fill in the other parts. However one of my friends was going to do cnc and he said the pay isn't that great and he needs to do really boring jobs for years before being promoted (my friend in nanotech said a similar thing he'd be stuck at QA at low wages). Might be why they're not coming in droves.

PCBs were never local in my life and I don't remember them to be. You could always make your own with a copper PCB, but now you can etch and use a 3d printer so that's actually gotten better. There's maker spaces by me as well.

I don't think there's ever been a better time to do these kinds of projects even compared any other "golden age" in my life. By the time Arduino was around these places were already dead.

Congrats on a cool job. I love seeing engineering.