The Brain is Better Than the Problem: Helder Carvalheira on Hands-On Problem Solving

Helder Carvalheira is a technology engineer who's worked on semiconductor equipment, Bluetooth devices, and Amazon Echo products. He's also a Grammy-nominated record producer, touring musician, and hot rod restorer.

In this conversation, Helder talks about why he's never been satisfied simply taking what he knows and applying it somewhere else - there has to be something new to learn, and he has to be able to get his hands on it. We discuss what it's like to move further from the product as you advance in your career, the importance of working with great people, and the philosophy his father taught him: the human mind is more powerful than any problem you face.

Whether you're feeling stuck in a role that's pulled you away from what you love, or you're trying to figure out how to stay engaged after decades in your field, Helder's story offers a reminder that curiosity and persistence can take you anywhere - as long as you're willing to get your hands dirty.

Connect with Helder on his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helder-carvalheira-0390422/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Iteration Point. I'm Michael Atkins. Today's guest proves that you don't have to choose just one thing. Some people build entire careers around a single focus. And then there are people like Helder Carvalera, who seem to collect expertise the way other people collect hobbies. Helder is a technology engineer and leader who's worked on everything from semiconductors to Bluetooth headsets to Amazon Echo devices. He's also a Grammy nominated record producer, a multi-instrumentalist who's toured North America and Europe, and a hot rod restorer with a shop full of tools he actually uses. What ties it all together? A philosophy. His father instilled into him from an early age. The human mind is more powerful than any problem you face. You just have to find a way to apply your brain to the problem. And Helder spent his entire career doing exactly that. Whether it's inventing new wafer robotic systems, producing records, or troubleshooting engine problems. But after 20 years at Plantronics and Polycom and stints at Amazon and in the SaaS world, Helders realized something. It's not enough to just apply what you already know somewhere new. There has to be something new to learn, and you have to be able to get your hands on it. This is a conversation about staying close to the work that lights you up, about needing love to love what you do, not just be good at it. And about what happens when you've collected enough experience that you get to be really selective about what comes next. Let's get into it. Really excited for you to be on here and excited to introduce you to the audience and to our listeners. So if you don't mind giving us uh a brief introduction and tell us about your journey. All right.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Okay. So I'm Helder. Helder Carvalera, actually, more precisely. And I am, if you were someone were to describe me, I guess I'm I'm a technology developer, engineer, and manager and leader and program manager and all of that. I'm a technology developer who is also a passionate musician and record producer who's also a hot rod restorer. So I have I I like a lot of stuff. I guess that's probably the best way to put it. And um maybe just a little bit about my journey and how I got here. So uh I I grew up in an environment where learning and experimentation was kind of a norm. It was kind of drilled into me by my father who who he came from the from the the merchant marine. He worked in engine rooms of ships, he loved airplanes, loved anything mechanical, instilled all of that experimentation and also the tenacity to to go after a problem and to understand that the human mind is is is far more powerful than any problem that you've got that you face. You know, there's uh that that the brain is better than the problem. Okay. All you have to do is find the way to apply the brain to the problem. And that's something that I've instilled in my life and instilled in my kids' lives for that, for that matter. We can solve any problem. All we have to do is put our minds to it, right? And really, and we really can. Think about the history of the world. This is this is very, very true. So, anyway, so that was sort of a fundamental element. It was it was very, very easy and natural for me to move into a technical career in engineering. Started out as a manufacturing engineer in semiconductor equipment. And this was specifically electron beam lithography gear. And so uh, you know, working on mask uh generation equipment, reticle generation, even direct ride equipment, and working on all kinds of uh, first as a manufacturing engineer on all kinds of of uh of technologies there, laser, high vacuum, electron beam, precision mechanical, you name it. Um, from manufacturing engineering did a bunch of field work also in trying to bring up new beta systems and and uh into fixing some hard problems in the field all over the world and fabs all over the world. I was in that business for about 16 years in lithography, then I went to chemical vapor deposition. That's where I also worked on ozone and chemical delivery systems as a mechanical engineer. I also worked on contamination reduction systems, I worked on patents applied for clean ozone development. And then also ultimately into wafer handling and wafer robotics handling specifically is single-arm robots, multi-track robots, and all that's necessary for high throughput wafer transport. And then in the end, also new system architectures for high throughput. And actually, I'm a I'm an inventor on a patent for a high throughput, low footprint uh CVD architecture system.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

So that inventiveness that you got had instilled in you through your parents and working through that that kind of problem solving and putting your mind to solving any problem really instrumental in being able to drive that early part of your career.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah, it it it it was. Um and I enjoyed actually the hands-on element. I started um I started a wafer robotics transport group. I started a systems engineering group. And uh when I got out of the business, I was director of systems engineering at that point. What I really loved was having my toolbox. I really loved having the toolbox and really being able to get in and really understand the technical element of what we were doing to be able to calculate and model these systems. And I used lots of software to figure out how to model many different elements of these systems. And uh at about the time of the 300 millimeter wafer uh uh wafer transition, I got out of the business and I really wanted to go into something completely different because that was B2B technology. I wanted to try consumers. So I ended up going to consumer electronics, working on headsets. And so I was with Plantronics and Polycom for over 20 years and started out there as one of the first Bluetooth program managers, first Bluetooth devices in the world. So, right at the front end of uh Bluetooth, worked through all kinds of internal startups and uh for all kinds of different communication devices, head of program management, head of engineering, head of program management, and engineering had quality under me, I had field service. At the end, I was uh VP of uh Global Engineering Services, so I had uh you know pretty wide portion of the business after 20 years there. I had moved into an executive role, and I would while that can be exciting, really missed being close to the product. I really, really did.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Doing the troubleshooting that and figuring out the solutions to the problem?

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah, exactly. The the solutions, the troubleshooting I was doing more was more on the business end was like, how how do we start a how do we start a design center in China? How do we expand a design center in Mexico or start one there? How do I get these new supplier relationships going, you know, in the consumer electronic space? It was it was different, right? Um, and I really wanted to get a little closer to the product. Ended up uh leaving there, and then I went to Amazon Devices Lab 126 for about three and a half years, working on um uh on development process and development strategies for the echo product lines for you know, touched on fire TV, touched on Kindles and Fire tablets and and uh and and working on those. And and I gotta tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Amazon. I mean, uh it's a it's a challenging environment in a good way. You know, working with a lot of really smart people there, my leaders there, they were, I think I was really fortunate I was in a good part of the company there. Um, I I thoroughly enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I was gonna ask you about that because it seems like the the common thread that I'm hearing from a lot of the people that I've been talking to is it's as important for the satisfaction that we get out of our jobs, it's as important in terms of what we're doing, who we're work doing it with, right? Like the quality of the people that you're engaging with on a day-to-day basis makes or breaks a place uh for a lot of folks.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

It really does. I I was in at Plantronics for this long because of the great environment and the great people we had there. And when I went to Amazon, I was a little iffy about how it was going to be. Some of the smartest people I've worked with in my entire career, not just one or two, but all of them. It's just it was it was really phenomenal. I I I enjoyed it a lot. I ended up leaving there because I had this nice, shiny opportunity to go work on SaaS software, Michael, as you may know. And and it was something I hadn't done before. I spent my whole career really working on hardware, and I wanted to go explore the software on it. Um, and uh in a different business, in a business that was in the midst of transition. So there seemed to be a lot of good there for me to learn. And uh, and I did learn some, but I felt that I was still a little bit far from the product. In fact, I probably got further from the product than I really wanted to, and uh, and there's no really good way for me to get a little bit closer to the product in my role. So right now I'm in the midst of uh of a transition also, and I'm trying to figure out where to go. My journey has really been one where I've been able to find some new and different things and find something new to learn along the way. One thing that's never made me thoroughly happy is to simply take what I know and apply it somewhere else. That's not enough for me. Now, maybe enough for others, but for me, it's there's got to be something new and substantially new.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

You have to get your hands on it to really be satisfied with the work that you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

I have to get my hands on it. And um, if I don't have an opportunity to get my hands on it, then then I you know I'll I'll do the job, but will I love the job is the difference, right? And I gotta be able to love it. So in the midst of all of this, I've spent my whole lifetime working on cars and restoring them and hot rotting them. And so um, and I I do a lot of that work to this day. A nice shop that I uh that I love to work with and help my friends work on my cars, working on others. So that's uh that keeps me close to tools. And then the other one is as a musician, I've been a multi-instrumentalist and I've played in bands and toured North America, toured in Europe, uh, and played um just been a studio musician, I've been a road musician. Uh I'd continue to be a working musician now, soon to go back into the studio and do some more work in the studios. Um songwriter, Grammy nominated also for uh for a record that I produced a few years back. And when I'm going back with that artist again, and we're gonna start working on another record as well. So I've been in and out of professional studio since the 80s, and uh and so I've got you know uh you know, I've got uh many, many, many recording projects under my belt, many releases and commercial releases over the years. So all that kind of factors in. One of the reasons I love being at Plantronics is audio, and you know, there's a lot of commonality between those two.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Uh absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

So I'm I'm sort of at a point where you know, my next move, whatever it is, I gotta love it.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

And and you've got enough interests and varied interests and experience across so many different things that you've got a lot of different potential paths in front of you.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah, yeah. And uh, you know, I'm I'm not a I I've been reading a couple books on um on uh the the history of uh semiconductors. And the time I spent there, which is 16 years, I spent 16 years there, and it I'm super proud of that. When when you think about, well, let me let me back up a little bit. For me, one of the things that's also super important, not enough for me, not enough for me to love it. I need to know that what I do is have an impact on the world around me, impact on people, on individuals, or even a large group of individuals, right? But it's gotta be able to make the world better somehow. And I look at the work, particularly what I did over in the semiconductor equipment. Geez, we were right in the midst of all these transitions, you know, from four-inch wafers to six-inch, okay, to eight inch to twelve inch, okay. And we by the time I left, we were trying to push line widths of 180 nanometers, you know, we started out like over a micron. I mean, it's uh, it's it's just that was very much Moore's law, right? And the whole completely of that. But but you think about the the world that we live in. Think about this that we're doing right now, this call, this podcast, this video, this audio, enabled by all of that. And I I think that is something that we all should aspire to do, is how can you go and be and and and have one little piece, have that one hand that's helping to push that train forward? Yes, it's a train, right? You can put one hand, and there's you know tens of thousands of other people who have their hands on it. But if you have your hand in pushing forward something that is that is going to change the world, it's it's one of the best things that you can do.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

And if you can love it at the same time, it is it's magical.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

And then all of a sudden, right, is making sure you're pushing the right train, right? That's uh, and and which train do you want to focus on? Because there's so many different opportunities and there's so much potential within each of us. Yeah. And only so much time, right? Like time is a limiting factor for everybody here.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

It it really is. You know, every time I look in the mirror, I see gray hair. You know, it's like time is absolutely a limiting factor. But um uh you're right. What are the things that you want to want to push towards, right? That you want to help obviously AI is uh is a major one right now, not the only one, but a major one that's you know arguably as big or bigger than the internet, even in terms of its impact on humanity. I mean got the potential for that impact, I think. Potential.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

The potential for that positive and negative, right? I mean, we certainly hear a lot of stories about people that are going through transition because of AI impacting their workplace. And that's yeah, so when you think about how how can we responsibly use these new tools to accelerate the train that we're trying to push, right? But not leave anybody behind or, you know, heaven forbid, have the train roll over them.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Those are those are kind of interesting things and that we're gonna be shaping up over the course of the next uh, you know, couple of years, I think.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

So so let's think let's just think about that one for a minute, right? Anything that any individual, any activity that any individual can do to help to shape that so that it could be a little bit better for our world as well as the world of our of our children of the next generation, I mean, these are real, real important things for us to all try and work on and try and find a you know a better way to to for it to be the for it to be deployed, for it to be accepted, for it to be implemented. These are the things that for me, I think are just are so important. And if one has the ability to try and steer into something that can really be that impactful, and you're doing it in a way that that addresses your passions, that's magical. I've I've been fortunate to have been able to do that. And I tell you, it is really, really great. And I've also been where I'm not doing that. I can tell you the days are long. The days are long when you're not doing that. So that's so when it comes to transition, this is exactly what I'm trying to navigate right now. And to me, it's not necessarily a case of I'm gonna go find I, you know, I have to find something right now. And by the way, many people have to find something right now. Okay. That's right. Yes. In fact, that is, I'd I'd argue that's more normal, is that somebody has to find somebody something right now. And I completely, completely understand that. If it's possible for you to try and get something that drives your passion and that helps to move the world, then that's a a magical place to uh to be. And I'm also not entirely clear in what form that's gonna take for me. The traditional full-time employment, there's the consulting mode. Okay. Sure. There's there's the mentoring mode, right? And the teaching mode, which are all areas that I'm also really eager to to explore. Here's the truth we have a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience. If we don't do something to get that out of our heads, it's it's a lost opportunity for future generations. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, it's it I agree completely. If we don't share the things with other people and our knowledge and and you know, our thoughts and our helping each other guide you know the next generation through uh this collective experience called humanity, then it's not adding that value. So I think absolutely true important to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Yeah, I uh one of the things that I did on the side several years back, I was the on the board of directors, in fact, I was treasurer also for a while, of uh Santa Cruz Works, which is a local tech incubator here in Santa Cruz, California. We were aligned at the time with UC Santa Cruz and helping to uh helping to dispense and guide the grants that were funded for research through UC Santa Cruz. And what was coming out of some of these grants were these startup opportunities from students, entrepreneurial opportunities from students that to be to start to to pursue technologies, to productize them. And one of the most enjoyable parts of my career was the time I spent there because I was mentoring. And there were these uh these students, these university students that were that had these ideas to develop these products, but didn't have an idea on how to productize it or even how to turn it into a business or even who to talk to to do either of those. So that's where I stepped in and I made connections, connected them with industrial designers, connected them with with uh short-run prototypers. I advise them on what it's gonna take to be able to take something ready for an alpha test or for a beta test. You know, that you can't have you know something that's hammered together with wooden nails, and I mean it seriously, it was hammered together with wooden nails, and so you're gonna go out and beta test it. No, no, no, no, you've got a long way to go, buddy. But here's how you get there, and here's the steps you need to take. And I know a guy. Okay, we'll go talk to that guy. Oh, yeah, and I know a guy over there, go talk to that guy.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Connections are incredibly important. And making the connection.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

I thoroughly enjoyed that. That was part of that paying it forward. That was part of that getting that brain dump off of my out of my head and helping out others. That was a kick in the pants, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

I I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed that. Yeah. And so if money were no object, I like, is that the kind of thing that you would want to be that you could see yourself doing?

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Is that absolutely my vision? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

I can. And um, and you know, I've been talking with uh uh with some folks even just as recently as uh last week on those sorts of opportunities of being of of of helping of helping some of these startup or starting companies or entrepreneurial ideas. When someone has an idea and they don't have anywhere, they they have no idea where to turn. Well, you know, I got you know, a career's full of connections. If you want to get something made, I know who to talk to. And so the these are the things, yes, that that's that's probably the most fun thing I can think of. And if it's something that's actually helping.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Oh, yeah, you see that, huh? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

And if it's something that happens to be to really uh be critical for the world, changing the world somehow, that would be fantastic. One that I worked with was a water management startup. And I won't get into too much too many details beyond that, but think about the problem that we have as a human race with wire. It's massive. You can't live without it. Yeah, in many places of the world, we're starting to live without it. Okay. Water management, how to actually do it right, is is a huge, huge thing going forward, right? And honestly, for my future generations, I hope they have enough water for them to be able to live the way that we live, right? So it's important for us to go tackle. That's just one that didn't even talk about AI. I wasn't even talking about clean energy. I wasn't even talking about medical. I mean, just water. There's one right there.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Get that right, and you save the world, right? Well, and the challenge right now is, of course, cooling centers use a ton of water or AI for cooling the data centers and the environmental impact. It's really interesting. I had a conversation the other day with somebody about, you know, the pitch to use AI to help solve our environment, our environmental problems ignores the fact that AI is contributing to the environmental problems. Maybe there's a force multiplier there. Maybe there's some logarithmic scale of, you know, getting the solutions, you know, accelerates faster than the the environmental impact at some point. But uh, yeah, it's a tremendous opportunity and and I would say risk at the same time. And we really don't just because we don't really know what the impact is going to be.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Yeah. You know, I I this is reminds me of a conversation I had with a with a with a good friend of mine just tail end of last week. We were talking about electric cars, right? And um uh he was he was very skeptical skeptical about electric cars because of the entire supply chain and development chain of an electric car. That is it truly, truly clean. My point, and and here's my argument. Exactly. So here's here's my argument in. Now, I'm not saying I'm right. I'm saying this is my perspective. Okay. Um, yes, you are right, but the data shows everything that you're saying. But what's the alternative? Do nothing? No. And and in fact, maybe we don't look as electric cars as the end state, but rather a step that helps us on some other path that will ultimately be able to solve the rest of that supply chain problem. So it's not a case of don't do anything because it's not perfect. Take a step because then you'll learn from that and go to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah. The the electric cars that we have being even made today are not the same. They don't have the same environmental impact that the ones had 10 years ago had when they were being punctured. And the technology increases, you know, the the research and development that these companies are putting into solving these problems doesn't happen unless you start with the first in, you know, the Nissan Leafs and the you know early Teslas. Exactly. And it has to ramp up from there because you, you know, you're not going to start out at perfect. So don't let that get in in the way of some progress. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.

unknown 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

And that's that's ultimately what it is. But you're you're absolutely right, Michael. And that's exactly my point here is no, this is not the end state. It's a step. And by the way, the more we time and effort we spend there, and then we're just using this as this just an example, by the way. More time and effort we spend there to try and address these, and let's just just talk about batteries for a second. What about these solid state batteries? What about these these new battery technologies that within a few years they're going to become mainstream? And they and and and the uh the the uh the energy potential in these is enormous compared to what we have today. And could that change the balance of the contamination that by the supply chain or the development chain?

SPEAKER_00 23:55

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

It could. It could, but to do nothing is not the right answer, right? So so uh I think that there's so many of these sorts of problems for us to solve. To me, do nothing is not the answer. Okay. Someone else may have a different answer, and I I respect that. But to me, do nothing's not an answer.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

I agree. I agree. I think you know, we have a lot of opportunities in front of us, right? And in every case. And I think it's again putting the weight behind the right train to be able to know that this is this is where we want progress to go. And, you know, not trying to go back in time and and pretend like this future, this timeline doesn't exist. We have the problems that we have, so let's work on solving them, right? Right and trying to make some progress and try and make the world a little bit better. I love that that you brought that up because that is so important to me in, you know, when I'm looking at my next opportunities. I really want to make sure that I'm lending my expertise and my knowledge to an organization that's doing something that I can really get behind and feel good about, and working with a team that is energizing me as well, right? Like those are all the factors that are that kind of go into making the decision about who to work with. Yeah, yeah. And uh so I that really resonated with me. And I I think a lot of our listeners will probably feel the same way.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Yeah, yeah. Uh that's uh these are sort of underpinnings for me and why I mean it's okay. I'll take a little time and figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah, you take the time and you do the other stuff that energizes you. You've got the music and you've got the hot rods, like and those are all great ways of staying connected to community and being engaged and passing on knowledge as well, right? And all that kind of stuff. It's fantastic. But if um so if we someone wanted to avail themselves of all this expertise that, Helder, that you have, what would be the best way to get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Just just uh just ping me on LinkedIn, okay. Okay. Um, and there probably aren't a whole lot of Helder Carvaler's on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Maybe I'll put a link in the in the show notes as well.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Actually, that would be great. Yeah. And uh just just ping me on LinkedIn. I'm checking it regularly and uh and love to talk. Even it's just to chat, and by the way, even it's just to share, you know, I mean, uh I'm happy to share whatever, happy to have a conversation. Just that alone. Hey, if I've got some information that can help somebody, I'll help. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Let's talk about it. That's a beautiful thing. It's absolutely great. And that's one of the reasons why I started this, right? Is in order to connect people and broaden the network effect and you know get people in connection with each other. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, uh, I I personally is, you know, very grateful to have been able to work with you um and know me too. You know, all the stuff that you're capable of. And yeah, um, um, I know that anybody else that avails themselves of of that will be as lucky as I was.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Yeah. And and and by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed working with you and and you were sharp, sharp, sharp, man. It's like you you understood a lot of the business. And it's like, you know, whatever Michael said is, okay, Michael's right. Because Michael's right. Well, I don't know if I'd go that far. Oh yeah, I will. I will.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Okay. I'll go that far. Thank you. Thank you. That's uh that's appreciated. So Helder's in the midst of a transition right now, figuring out what's next. And with his range of experience, from semiconductors to consumer electronics to SaaS, plus his work as a musician and a producer, he's got a lot of potential paths in front of him. But as he said, whatever it is, he's got to love it, and he needs to know it's having an impact on the world. If you want to connect with Helder, whether you've got an opportunity that fits or you just want to talk shop about product development, audio engineering, or restoring hot rods, reach out to him on LinkedIn. We'll put a link in the show notes. And as Helder mentioned, he's happy to share what he knows. Even if it's just a conversation, he's there to help. One thing that really struck me in this conversation was Helder's insistence that the brain is better than the problem. It's something his father taught him and something he's taught his own kids. Something that's he's carried with him through decades of solving hard problems across wildly different fields. It's a good reminder that persistence and curiosity can take you pretty much anywhere. Thanks for listening to The Iteration Point. New episodes drop every Tuesday. If this resonated, hit follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that they can solve any problem they're facing. And if you've got a story about following your curiosity wherever it leads, visit the iterationpoint.com. I'd love to hear from you. I'm Michael Atkins. See you next time.