Sunday, June 13, 2021
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“Do or do not, there is no try” - Jedi Master Yoda
I feel that very famous quote from Yoda sums up this week pretty well. When I did, I did very well and was very productive and got a lot of great stuff done. But sometimes I tried, but you can’t just try, and so I fell to the “dark side” and did not. I’m not sure exactly why I had those days, but I can guess that it was just general exhaustion. Meetings take a surprising amount of energy out of you, but I can guess that most people reading this blog know that. But what’s strange is that when I have meetings it’s very much a deadline that I can achieve and work towards. I find that days when I have meetings I work more, have more energy, and feel better about myself. Also brainstorming sessions are a great way to just feel productive and really flesh out ideas, which conveniently leads me to my next talking point.
I’m ecstatic about Psi*, the program that is supposed to be not my primary focus and revolves around different physics technologies and problems humans face in the world. There are a number of activities that go along with it, the first one being given a set of technologies from a deck, a problem humans have, and then being tasked to solve it with the technologies given. Everything about this project makes me excited. I can just feel how much potential this has to be huge not only to college students, but also high school students. It is just super exciting and I’m hoping I can really help work on it a fair amount throughout the summer and possibly even after the internship is over.
In regards to my other duties, they’re coming along. I wrote a few more demo drafts this week, made a video for my first demo, brainstormed a number of SOCK ideas and demos, and got to build and play around with an oscilloscope from the SOCK last year. It was generally productive, but I didn’t necessarily feel like I made any major breakthroughs or massive progress. Just general trudging along.
I did get to spend a good amount of time with the other interns this week and that was great fun. We played a lot of skribbl.io which was a lot of fun, but we keep forgetting to take screenshots of our events. Everyone is super nice and friendly and as much as I’m sad we don’t get to meet in person, it’ll just make PhysCon 2022 that much more exciting when we do finally all get to meet in person.
I think next week I’m going to try to make a very regimented schedule to keep myself focused and on track, and by setting goals and deadlines for myself I can work towards those everyday. I’m hoping that will keep me on the “do” track rather than the “do not” track that I’ve sometimes fallen into. But I’ll let you all know how that goes for me next week!
May the force be with you,
Noah Johnson