Topic of the Month: Go With the Flow!
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On a recent anniversary cruise to the New England states and the eastern provinces of Canada, I saw one of Canada's greatest spectacles and that was the strongest tides in North America at the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. At this location, the geography and topography are such that the Atlantic Ocean actually reverses the flow of a river which normally flows into it and then this phenomenon reverses later at the opposite tide.

The water fowl and all other creatures have adopted their behavior to match this very unusual flow and level behavior, and extreme change in water salinity. No one has built a dam to stop this from happening. The forces, produced by the flow of a hundred billion gallons of water back and forth, on a predictable (but varying) cycle, are millions of orders of magnitude greater than current reversal in a battery!

See: www.bayoffundytourism.com

It made me think about all the times we fight the inevitable or try to change natural behavior and the many ugly consequences that can result. We fight gravity instead of trying to use it. We spend money cooling things instead of using the heat productively. We try to change people's styles of communication or behavior instead of using and taking advantage of their natural strengths.

We stay in businesses that we know are going out of business. We fight technology trends that we know are coming and put our heads in the sand. We reward behavior that we know will cause harm in the long term (but after we won't be around). We put off doing the inevitable until it costs a lot more than it would have had we done it earlier. What's your list like?

Next public TRIZ class is in Las Vegas, September 26-28 for ASME and AIChE: www.asme.org
I promise no homework in Vegas...

Introduction to Chemical Engineering course for AIChE/ASME in Denver (October 10-12): www.asme.org