341–350 of 472 posts
" I am not a visionary. I'm an engineer. I'm happy with the people who are wandering around looking at the stars but I am looking at the ground and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in. " - Linus Torvalds (TED Talk 2016)
> I am not a visionary. I'm an engineer. I'm happy with the people who are wandering around looking at the stars but I am looking at the ground and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in.
Apollo 11 engineers:
> ok boomer.
"Adapt and overcome." Motto/mantra from my time in the Marine Corps. I think, officially, it was "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome." but rarely was the first word included in my exposure. Related to that mantra's concept was: "Semper Gumby - Always Flexible." Both are useful in acknowledging that 1) Change is constant and 2) To thrive, you must be able to work with that change.
"slow is smooth, smooth is fast" - not sure where the origin is, perhaps military, but some of my friends/coworkers have laughed when I said this before. To me, personally, it has always turned out to be true. When you're working on something, don't rush it, take the time to do it right. This typically saves time in the long run because you tend to avoid rework.
For example two linked turns and a straight.
If you went fast through the first one, you might have to go slow through the second one and the speed onto the straight would be slow.
But if you slowed way down for the first turn and then accelerated from there through the second turn, your speed entering the straight would be much greater and then speed over distance would lower your lap time.
"Sand in the machine!" suddenly sounds less contrary and anarchist in Latin :-)
At a Christmas lunch in 1996 - I was 12 - My nan told me and my sister. "Some bugger will always have a faster car, a flashier house, a glitzier watch - but you were the only kids that ever had me for a nana". I've used variations on the same theme throughout most of my life!
"There's only one way to get home".
About the refusal to be at ease in your comfort zone. If it's easy for you now, you better push harder before the competition catches-up.