Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1228683
72 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2020 Idaho. But golf is a six-months-per-year activ- ity. On the lake below, I'd see these seaplanes come in. That looked like a bunch of fun. If I had good sense, I'd have bought one, but instead, I tried to do something that was hard to do—build a much better one. So far, I have failed at that. I'm back to designing new air- planes now and working on a solution for the urban transport category. Feinberg: I understand, not to the same degree as you , but I have failed retirement twice, and I hate golf. You have to do something. About every six months, I'll take a break and build a new computer because that's what I do instead of play- ing golf. I'll max it all out, benchmark it to the end, and then forget about it for six months. Then, you find out that someone beat you. I also play with a country- rock band. Rutan: Do you ever play Elvis? Feinberg: We do. Rutan: I have sideburns out of respect for the king. The problem is that the people who love Elvis are dying off, but I decided to continue to wear the sideburns. When you get older than me, you might find yourself wandering around now, knowing where you are, and you get lost. My right sideburn is in the shape of Idaho. I can say, "Canada is here. I live here. Take me home." (laughs) Matties: It has been enjoyable having you as a guest. Rutan: I've enjoyed talking to you, as well. I wish I had time to see all the displays here. I'm surprised that I don't see much virtual real- ity stuff here, but if I was working on break- through technologies for virtual reality—such that you don't have to travel to a vacation or business meeting—I wouldn't show it. I would hide it until it's ready. When you attend a show like this, you're telling everybody else what you know. We didn't attend shows or demon- strate our composite manufacturing methods. I thought, "Why would I do that?" I sent my people to shows to learn things, but I wouldn't display myself. Matties: It's interesting that you say that. Happy worked for HP for 30 years, helped invent the first HP scientific calculator, and he's the father of HDI fabrication. When he talks to young engi- neers, they will say, "We're going to try this new thing." He'll remind them, "We did that back in the '60s, but at HP, we never got patents because once you got one, you had to share the idea." Happy always says that they were good at keeping secrets. That's exactly what you're talking about. Rutan: That's much better than a patent. Now, I have 13 patents, but I've only paid for three of them myself. It's the customers that say, "We want to protect it." I found that life is a whole lot more fun if you don't deal with lawyers. If I had more time, I would have shown my lawyer slide, which essentially says that big companies are run by the lawyers. When lawyers advise companies on risk man- agement, executives will always follow them because they don't want to have a lawyer who comes up later and says, "I told you so." That's a huge problem. Matties: Burt we certainly appreciate your time today. Feinberg: Thank you so much. It was a plea- sure meeting you. Rutan: It was very nice meeting you, too. SMT007