Week 0

Square 1. Sometimes you search for things and other times they find you. Inspiration, excitement - coming at me from the place I least expected them. My lowly 9-5. Lately there has been nothing lowly about it. It reminds of why I got into engineering in the first place. For the challenge, the thrill of solving a hard problem, the agony of a mind that keeps running until it passes out from exhaustion. Only to spin up again the next day. And the next. Constantly being placed on a new track with a fresh set of obstacles. I missed researching, writing, learning, thinking about things that have no boundaries and no apparent limitations. It feels borderline manic. I feel like I could live in this space forever. I listened to a podcast once where someone said there's no such thing as burnout when the job invokes passion. I wonder if there's some truth to that, I'm sure I'll find out sooner than I'd like. There's nothing more exciting than a new idea, and no bigger let down than realizing how hard it will be to execute. I've been talking to AI chat bots more than humans lately. I've learned that the most valuable thing I can bring to the conversation is perspective. Given all the data in the world, the one thing robots really struggle with is reading between the lines. Maybe because they were created by humans who share the same tunnel vision. I'm working on enjoying the high while staying grounded enough to keep the depth that makes me real. In a world where solutions are at the tips of our fingertips, it's important to remember to dig our toes into the dirt and breathe for all we're worth.