Why an Engineering Calculator Needs to Tell You That You Are Loved

I have an article of faith that I repeat often: The nerds win. The nerds save the world.

When you look closely at history, it isn’t the loud salespeople or the brutal conquerors who permanently alter the trajectory of human existence. It is the technicians. Look at the printing press—a piece of nerd technology that ultimately brought us each other's raw humanity.

Look even at the nuclear bomb. It is an utterly menacing specter that brings immediate, existential peril to our doorstep in the short term. Yet, its silver lining is its naked imposition of personal restraint on political figures who were not historically disposed or required to behave properly. By hanging the literal destruction of the planet over their heads, this terrifying piece of nerd engineering is forcing humanity along a long-term spiritual path of growth. Just like the printing press, it may ultimately drag us farther from our worst impulses and closer toward peace and plenty. The nerds quietly built the boundary conditions that force us to grow up or perish.

Because I am a technician, I spent years writing code and building engineering tools including a suite of free online engineering calculators started in 2009. Recently, I released a free, web-based looped network solver called EPANET++. It allows anyone, anywhere, to model development projects, city grids, or small village water systems right inside their browser. No corporate licenses, no expensive installations, no data harvesting. Just physics and fluid dynamics.

But if you open the "About" section of this highly technical tool, right next to the fluid mechanics documentation, you will find these words:

"You are loved and cherished forever, you have nothing to fear, and you are not ruining everything."

Why put a message of radical, unconditional grace inside a hydraulic calculator?

Because you are a geek. You get giddy when you think about water, math, maps, and modeling. You were made to do amazing things enthusiastically.

But traditional engineering environments can easily drain that joy right out of you with institutional performance anxiety. I wanted to build a safe sandbox. EPANET++ is a free, easy, and quick way in the browser to get a ballpark and realistic idea of how these water systems act. You can take chances, iterate, and see how the fluids behave without spending the whole project budget, getting your boss upset at you, or even having to ask your boss to buy you an expensive software license.

When you are out in the field working on a pipeline—whether it's a corporate site layout or a community project like the one I am involved with in Fotobi, Ghana—you shouldn't have to carry the paralyzing fear of gatekeepers or corporate red tape.

When a calculated water network runs perfectly in your browser without costing a dime, the world gets a little bit more saved by a nerd who had the freedom to play. And when you read those words on my page, I hope you remember that you are safe, you belong, and your imperfections do not disqualify you from doing good.

Drop your fears at the door. The software is free, the calculations are sound, and love is spoken here.