“SDMB Geeks” is probably the vast majority of us, I realize…but I have a question of you.
I’m going to school for Mechanical Engineering at the moment. I’m still, though, in the early parts of an engineering degree, so things could easily change along the way. I have interests far and wide. I’ve played music for 15 years, already have a degree in Psychology; I usually just enjoy learning, and listening and being around smart people (hence my membership here ).
However my problem is, I’m not really exceptionally good at any of these things. Psychology was a program which I enjoyed, but never really got outstanding grades in. I’ve just started in the engineering field, which again, I have a lot of interest in, however my grades here are not exactly phenomenal either. They’re not at all BAD, however they still lack that “Wow, this just seems so easy and natural. You were born to do this!”
So if you have any input I’d appreciate it, however my main question is this…for the SDMB geeks (of all kinds) have you always been good in your area of expertise? Is it even easy for you even NOW?
I was always good at understanding the day-to-day physics of the world: how to ride a bike, how to balance on a log, how to throw a Frisbee, how to pour into a funnel. I think that the way my thought processes worked made it easier for me to study engineering.
I wasn’t always so good at higher math, though. I ended up taking one of the required Calculus classes twice. I feel that I left Uni with the rudiments of understanding it; kind of like a skeleton, or bones to build upon. What I learned working next few years fleshed my skill set out.
It was mostly not too difficult. However, there were some concepts which I had to really work at grasping. Interestingly, after a few years these began to reveal themselves to me. Twenty years into it, it’s a lot closer to being “easy for me” but it always takes some mental work.
If you’re comfortable thinking about things in your field of study now, and it makes sense to you, then you should be fine.
For example, if you saw a shaft with a gear on it meshed into another gear at a right angle, could you visualize the way the second gear would turn when you turned the shaft? If so then I’d say you have an aptitude for Mech. Engineering. I wish you well in your studies.
I work in IT more on the business side with some management responsibilities but I am a programming expert first and foremost. I started programming at the age of 8 on a school Apple IIE. Like many people, I got my Commodore 64 right after they came out about a year later. I was a pretty good programmer for a young kid by the age of 10. Like many skills, it was pretty easy to pick up young so yes, I guess that I have always been good at what I do.
Well for Computers, I taught myself to program basic on the 16k TI99/4A at age 15. I wasn’t even planning to become a programmer but rather and EE or maybe a Computer Engineer.
I read the Hobbit, LotR, Silmarillion and Companion to Middle-Earth and Middle-Earth trivia book by 7th grade and was already debating how great it was an comparing it to things like the Chronicles of Narnia and Prydain. I was very well versed in older Sci-Fi works by 12th grade before Cyber-Punk and the new wave of stuff had made a dent yet.
I was terrible at wood working until I was about 27 and only got good at it in my 30s.
I am still not a good sailor, sad to say, but I enjoy it and I enjoy working on old wooden sailboats.
I have always watched baseball. One of my earliest memories was in 1969 and Mickey Mantle retiring. I was almost 3. I seriously starting watching and knowing what I was watching by the time I was 7. I started reading the Baseball Encyclopedia by time I 8 and I studied the box scores and weekly league leaders in the papers. I used to be able to recite every member of the 500 club and everyone that had hit 50+ homers in a season. I guess I was always good at being a baseball fan. However I was never a very good player and only learned with much work to do a few things well.
Jim
I’ve had several areas of expertise including a short military career and have always been good at everything I’ve tried. OK maybe not at first but I have always applied myself and became good in a relatively short time. I’m currently a lead engineer and have no engineering education at all.
I’ve been programming for a long time. When I first started, I was as nervous as could be really didn’t think I’d make it through my first year. You may expect to set the world on fire but your employer probably won’t. Your attitude is far more important than aptitude.
You still won’t see any of my programming in the Oracle PL/SQL magazine but my users always want me to work for them because whenever they have a problem, I make it my problem and won’t rest until it’s solved. You don’t have to be a genius or a prodigy to be good at what you do.
It never gets easier, you just get stronger. Greg Lemond said that about cycling, but you can adapt it to most skills / talents.
If you stick with one thing as your calling for a long time, then the definition of ‘good’ changes dramatically. Being good at chemistry as an undergrad meant mastering theory and being able to deliver in written examinations, plus developing very basic practical skills. Sticking with it through PhD and postdoctoral level, being good means having serious practical skills, rock-solid on theory and knowing what’s going on in the literature.
I lead a research group now, and an entirely new set of skills are needed to be good. The sort of practical and analytical skills that make great postdoc researchers are under my belt, but they’re no longer as relevant and are probably eroding. Even strength in theory is not as important as you might think. It’s more about having the vision and management ability to shape and maintain the scientific output of a team of people.
I think people who are good at what the do have the capacity to adapt their talent as they proceed through apprentice - journeyman - master. So it shouldn’t ever really get easy, you just get better and your vocation keeps changing.
As a child I was “science oriented”, and that has continued all my life. It always came easily and enjoyably for me.
Pretty much the same with visual arts like painting and photography, even though they have been hobby level rather than professional in level and quality.
But I am an absolute bust with instrumental music, which I’ve always wanted to adept at. Oh well…good thing I didn’t try to earn a living with the accordian.
I discovered FileMaker by accident, having been trained in social work, which is what I was doing at the time (and I was a bit better than mediocre at that and enjoyed it). I found designing the company’s database to be addictive; I could make that thing do anything, it was amazing! I’d always sort of wanted to be a “programmer” but never learned C++ or anything of that ilk, and now at least within the confined of this program… it felt like I was going beyond simply formatting and structuring a computer document file, the resulting structure that everyone else at the company worked in was more and more an “application”.
It’s always been easy, I’ve always been one of the best in general development and one of the very fastest, never took a course, scarcely cracked the owner’s manual.
This is not true of any other environment I’ve worked in, just FileMaker. But as long as someone out there still wants a FileMaker developer I’ve probably always got a job.
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