That's where all the pros are going to say I did it wrong.
[laughter]
PATRICK KREKELBERG: We are in the Lake Superior
highlands in a forest.
We're only 10 miles north of Two Harbors.
The fact that Lake County had the vision
to put in a fiber network.
And once I saw that that was happening,
it was like I had the idea in my mind
like that's finally our chance to be--
kind of find the fusion between doing
what I do professionally with living
in a place that's very remote.
Pretty much what I'm doing right now
is what I do most of the time is doing stuff, people saying
stuff, and I say stuff back.
What it is is a product development group that
is global that works globally with people
from all different backgrounds in software, hardware,
and firmware, and also doing mechanical design
and everything, and kind of bringing together
a lot of different bright minds and not
thinking so much about hierarchies,
but thinking more about subject matter expertise
and leveraging that to do interesting things,
solve hard problems.
My favorite projects are the things
that involve one or two things that haven't been done before.
I feel like everyone that starts out
or kind of envisions a life as an engineer
kind of pictures themselves inventing things and creating
things.
And I think it took me a really long time
to understand that working on somebody else's invention
is sometimes even more interesting.
Somebody to own an idea and own the vision for what something
is going to be, and being able to partner with them
allows us do lots and lots and lots
of different types of things in many different contexts.
And this is one example of that.
We're very discerning about what types of projects we take on.
So we keep things fresh.
We work in the music industry and the recreation
industry and scientific and all these different types
of things.
So there's always a new hard problem.
And I really enjoy finding solutions to hard problems,
whether it's me personally that has the answer
or going and finding somebody to partner
with that has the answer, I love finding solutions.
To me, combining two things that I love--
I love music, and I never pictured
being able to kind of feed that into doing the technology work.
But now they're so intertwined, it's
really a dream to be able to combine those two things
into a way to make a living.
[guitar music]
It's amazing to be--
instead of just taking a lunch break and having a sandwich
and sitting out--
being able to go for a hike or go and do
some work in the woods in the middle of the day is amazing,
and coming back refreshed, having had that experience.
[children's chatter]
MARY KREKELBERG: I love it out here.
I have a hard time you know leaving all the family
that we had in the cities.
And that was where we made our home.
And we love the city.
But it's so peaceful out here.
And we just wanted a place where we could teach our kids
to get things from the forest and live a simpler life,
and still be able to make a living
and do all the things that we get to do.
I think it's great.
PATRICK KREKELBERG: Having somebody
that balances me out so well and is so artistic and creative
and determined, somebody that meets me
where I am, but is still uncompromising is--
there's no way that I would be able to do this if it
weren't-- if we didn't have that partnership.
Developing products professionally,
it's something I cared about anyway.
But I think about it especially what's
going to happen at the end of life for this product?
Or is this thing going to be maintainable
like traditional things had been?
And especially doing electronics,
it doesn't come naturally to consider that.
And so living in a place like this where it's so massive
and intimidating and humbling, it absolutely
affects the way that I think about what
we're building or developing.
[children's chatter]