I feel like there are two main ways for improving my analytic ability. Number one is deepening my my understanding of engineering principles. Number two is developing my skills at using software tools for simulations.
I’ll address number two first because it’s the one I’m not going to do 😉 I currently have access to solidworks simulation and flow simulation. I spent some time familiarizing myself with it at the beginning of the COVID stay at home orders. I have not yet had cause to use it much however. I’ve also realized that my biggest weakness with FEA is my confidence that I’m not missing something important. I could fix this with experience (which I just said I’m not getting) but I think I can improve it by deepening my engineering understanding.
I did decently well in college, at least in the ways that college is measured (3.85 GPA). However the ways in which college is measured are not the ways I’ve used the knowledge since then.
Two analogies best describe an engineering undergrad: drinking from a firehose, and building a wall brick by brick. The information overload of the firehose was what I struggled the most with at the time. The brick wall is what I have struggled with the most since then. In college the concepts you learned last semester are going to be the foundation for the things you learn this semester. Now the concepts I learned in college are part of the foundation for my job. Let’s be honest with ourselves – some of those bricks were crumbling when I put them in and they have continued to crumble since. Getting practical experience you get to review and see real examples of previously abstract ideas. I’ve had a lot of lightbulb moments since graduating. However, there are still some definite holes in the wall that slow me down sometimes. My goal is to purposefully patch them.
Time for the rubber to meet the road. Here is my basic plan:
- Review each subject from my undergrad degree
- Use feynman technique
- Work practice problems
- Deliverable will be a subject summary on this blog
- Create a reference knowledge tree for use later throughout my career
- Possibly use memorization techniques for critical equations/vocab/concepts
I don’t want to over commit myself, review an entire four years of study can easily balloon into an albatross of a project. I’m going to evaluate and tweek this plan as I go. I think I have the experience now to avoid some of the issues of college. I can focus on the stuff that is applicable and ignore the stuff that isn’t. Since this is self structured I get to focus on learning rather than performing.