Pressure

The other day I listened to a podcast about the Tesla cybertruck, and Elon Musk said he’s noticed that a lot of engineers spend time “optimizing things that shouldn’t exist.” I thought it was interesting because I’ve found that as I grow older and become the person who is setting up the structure of things- classroom, curriculum, personal budget, etc., I am faced with a gigantic number of decisions to make each day.

A lot of people have influenced the decisions I make, the list is actually quite large, I’ve had a lot of influences over the years. Most recently has actually been Dr. Preston, whose video you watched, influencing me to think about education and learning. Years ago it was my high school soccer coach, encouraging me to try my best and giving me good philosophies on soccer strategies. Those are just two examples, I could go on and on.

Today’s Journal Topic:

Who have been your greatest influences so far? What did they teach you? 

My journal from yesterday:

The first few weeks of Distance Learning were difficult, there were many spreadsheets, contacts, and deadlines to meet, it was very overwhelming. Then we had spring break, and that was good to have the down time and the chance to clean up my garage, which was a disaster.

Over break I started a New York Documentary series, very interesting to see how influential New York has been on American culture. I was unaware.

I also found Tom Bukovac and Mike Palmisano, two guitarists who put out videos. Actually I found Richards guitars as well, I’ve been trying to play a lot more lead guitar, but it’s slow going. I made some recordings with GarageBand, but nothing anyone might care to listen to.

I’m actually feeling quite settled, I realized that nobody really knows what to do , and that there are mistakes made and unintended consequences no matter what people decide to do. I’ve always heard that, but I’m really starting to realize it and finding peace within that fact. I see now that I can build based on my experiences, and it can have value.

I started another PandaPlanner, and I’m glad to be back to that structure. I’m also back to work, and will be focused on a few core things- mainly making sure all deadlines are met. Back to the basics, keep things simple.