Bill Gates was quoted as saying, “To be a good professional engineer, always start to study late for exams, because it teaches you how to manage time and tackle emergencies.” When I first got into engineering school, most of the smartest people in the program would always do this. I didn’t get it at all. I was busting my butt off, studying ahead of time, and when I would study with the guys a week before the test, all of them would be like, “I just opened the book yesterday, I’m not ready to study yet.” I would be the only one prepared, but somehow they got better grades on the test than I did.
But how could this be so? Were they smarter than me? After getting to the know the guys, years later I realized that I was just as smart as them, it’s just that they had a better grasp on exactly how much time it takes to learn something. The most important lesson to take away from this is that it is extremely important when you are working in the industry, that you be able to estimate the amount of time that it is going to take you to do accomplish a task. After failing a couple of times after you’ve cut it close on a number of occasions, you start to realize exactly how much time something is going to take.
My first experience manufacturing electronics was in spring and summer of 2013. I have friends who throw music festivals, and my buddy had asked me to create a large spider web structure that had LEDs that lit up.
As I progressed further into engineering school, I tried to copy the other guys' technique of putting off everything till the last minute, with absolutely horrible results. It is safe to say that precision engineering just doesn't work that well because it adds risk and increases resistance over time.
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