I agree completely Lawrence. Ed Craig's publications and advice are outstanding but he certainly doesn't play well with others!

I had the *pleasure* of meeting him in person when I was an AWS Staff member and although I greatly admired his work, I'm afraid my summation of his personality traits could not be stated in this Forum!

Listen, I'm going to give it to you straight. I'm currently in the automotive supplier business, and we do some of the hardest welding possible: thin guage material with high speed robotic application. If anyone disagrees with that statement, try setting up an .045" MIG wire in spray for welding 2.5mm material traveling at about 60in/min, it isn't a walk in the park. There are some cases in this industry where "salesmanship" will trump weld expertise, and weld expertise is sometimes viewed as how long someone has been able to weld (like it's any harder than writing your name...no offense pipe weldors). With the deep pockets of the auto industry, we are assaulted daily with people giving a ton of "revolutionizing" or "highly technologically advanced" sales pitches, but with no one really understanding the logic behind welding. This guy is the last of a dying breed. He keeps everyone grounded. Yes, he may be "rough around the edges", but how else do you expect to get anyone's attention when most managers walk around in the clouds like nothing is wrong and everything is operating correctly? He stand-off attitude, or the "cut the b*llsh*t" manner is probably partly due to frustration because he has to go around fixing all of the mistakes that could have been avoided if people would just read a little or quit taking everything that is in a brochure as the absolute fact. I had the same opinion as you when he first came in and inspected one of my plants; I was pissed and thought "who the hell is this guy coming in here telling me rah rah rah rah......." Then I did a little reading on his site, and did the most career changing thing ever....took his 30 question test and couldn't have passed the thing with a gun to my head. Anyway, short story long, it's okay to get initially offended, but go to his site and take his test, and you're going to find out how little you really know......then grow. He can be as rough around the edges as he wants....'cause he's right.

I agree with all the problems with in the industry and processes that Mr. Craig sells - as everyone should, but he is trying to manipulate the very person that he is criticizing. He targets the same "ignorant" professionals that he professes against. The problem with this I see is that he over simplifies things which aren't so simple all of the time - intentionally. He helps create in some situations the same issues he says he is trying to resolve. Sorry for the slight criticism of a friend to many of you. Just my friendly opinion.