I Want To Be A Generalist

I decided to become a generalist.

Discovering My Interests

It took a while to discover a very important aspect of my life. I didn’t want to have laser focus on only one aspect of the world, something that I was stuck in for a long time. I realized that I want to do a bit of everything and that was being more honest with myself. I felt like I escaped this illusion of life that I had and everything became so much more interesting.

Looking Back Into the Past and Now

The Past of Polymaths

If you search some notable persons on Wikipedia, you’ll notice that they hold multiple denominations such as scientist, philosopher, inventor, artist and so on. What you realize, these people have been from the deep past where being a polymath, someone who’s an expert in many areas, was actually quite standard. Despite the limited access to knowledge and no Interest, these people travelled far and wide to expand their knowledge eventually writing about it in exquisite texts that are so insightful that they are still canon and reference material today.

Our Present Of Specialization

In the past few hundred years, academia has developed a ride towards specializations. We are thought from elementary school that our way to success will involve picking a narrow field, mastering it and finding a job in that area. Although our school adventures starts with a balance of several subjects, as we progress through the grades, things start to narrow down. Once you reach the PhD level, your worldview seems really narrow and it’s seems that your subject is all you can talk about. As our modern times go by, it seems that the specializations are becoming even narrower to the point of making our views on aspect of life very binary and shallow.

Losing Your Advantage

The biggest disadvantage of specializing becomes the fact that what you learn might be irrelevant in just a few years in our fast paced world. If you studied about fourth-generation programming languages, well guess what, today it’s almost irrelevant and few career opportunities will allow you to use this out of date skill.

Leaving My Comfort Zone

Just like many, I was brainwashed to believe that the only way to success and fame was through university. As time progressed, I felt like I wasn’t being squished into a really narrow corridor. The illusions provided by past school became disillusionment.

I went to lounges for graduate students to learn more about their lives. Technically I wasn’t allowed to be there but the people I met were friendly and very open. I started to realize that their entire lives were dedicated to something very narrow. I tried to initiate discussions about something else but it would be awkward and unnatural. It wasn’t until I discussed their favourite subject. They lit up and had so much to say.

Exiting the Path of Specialization

The diplomas handed out at a long party started to seem irrelevant to me. It didn’t even mean I was good at something. I was just complacent ready to be obedient at some job. As one of my physics professors said “when you get a diploma, it just means congratulations! you've memorized fifteen books”.

This whole idea started to become a nightmare for me but for some reason I kept soldering on. The culmination of finishing my courses lead to a very anti-climatic event when I was handed my piece of paper. It was the result of 5 years of boredom that I spent so much money on.

After a long of only doing one thing in my life as a software developer, the shallow perspective of life made me feel incomplete. The world seems so full and colourful, good and bad, things. I left the shackles of my tiny little field and decide that I would like to know a bit more about this planet we live on.

New Careers and Hobbies

I decided to leave the software engineering to try other things. I wanted to do a bit of everything. After trying to bud myself into a field that I had no credentials, I’ve become a technical and content writer, as a freelancer. I left myself to do technology gigs despite my departure from programming doing mostly IT services. I’ve even started driving for Uber with a 10 hour shift every Saturday.

Volunteering was something I took on. I explored taking part in humanitarian efforts, animal conservation and even eccentric meetups. I’ve managed to start my own social club that’s been solid for more than two years with weekly meetings and over 600 members.

Many of these activities took much of my time and didn’t pay near as much as my old software consulting career, maybe even half. However, I feel more content with what I’m doing not only because of the enhanced freedom these opportunities provided but also erasing boredom due to the fact that I was doing something different all the time.

I’m not done yet on seeing what other things I can do. I have on my mind things like real estate and home decoration. Another thing that tickles my mind has a big stigma behind it. Becoming a cuddle therapist…

Fear

I didn’t know how to face my desires and the changes required to move on to something else. The risk was really big and the uncertainty uncomfortable. I was trying to hold something full-time while I looked but I was started to focus less and less on it. Instead, I was exploring the other avenues and doing many interviews that lead to failure. I felt like I had to go back to software but I eventually got my first writing gig. It was a roller-coaster because I was doing something I wasn’t qualified in but after finishing the projects, I was proud of what I did. The impact on the company was obvious.

Irrelevancy

This is a purely anecdotal experience. I noticed that many people worked in fields that have nothing to do with their diploma. Theologians becoming software developers. Electrical engineers doing sales for life insurance. Mathematicians stuck in a job filing tickets for a broken payroll system. Social scientists feeding city hall with wasted time. Uber drivers with advanced diplomas in mechanical engineering. And so on.

Job search has become so difficult that finding something that exactly matches your studies is really difficult. No matter your level of education, there’s a high chance that your intelligence won’t count compared to another candidate who’s less qualified but has more charisma and cheat his way through the interviews.

Learning and Learning to Learn

Academia

While some people want to collect diplomas like Pokémon cards, I thought that academia was probably the worst way to learn. The main problem is cost but also the outdated nature of the form of education. Most of your time was swallowed by boring lectures and endless assignments. Even worse, it cost so much money to the point where in some places around the world, you need a mortgage to study.

Unfortunately, depending on your field and work arrangements, some might be still asked to provide that magic piece of paper. Apparently, it’s a right of passage proving that you learned and mastered something. Nothing could be further than the truth however. Most students worked for grades rather than learning. Cheating is abundant. Professors are incredibly incompetent because they have no experience in the real world. When you escape university after a grueling four to five years, you realize that you’re not ready for the real world.

Self-Learning And Curiosity

This is a path that I’ve taken a decade ago. We live in a blessed age where knowledge is so accessible. Book stores and libraries everywhere with resources ready to have explore the world outside yours. Our biggest blessing is probably the Internet. Content for all sort of interests and often cheap to take part in, in fact sometimes free. You can pick your learning style whether it’s reading a book, doing exercises online or even boring lectures if that what suits you.

It takes much motivation and discipline to learn something. However, once you get into it, it becomes an addiction. Your thirst for knowledge grows and grows.

What will fuel your learning adventure the most is your curiosity. Sometimes you look at something as simple clock and start wondering how a quartz stone can accurately measure seconds. What about the intricate workings of a society you’ve never heard of? Do you want to memorize pi to a thousand places or be a fact machine for the capitals of each country in the world? The possibilities are endless.

Best part is that you can use this knowledge to teach others and make yourself a nice career with some variety. Maybe you won’t have diploma or anything but you just need to sell yourself well. If you’re lucky, some online courses provide certificates which can be added to your portfolio.

Learning on my own has opened my eyes to so many things teaching me so many facts. My sense of culture grew massively and suddenly I was more qualified in something that I didn’t even know existed as a skill a few moments before.

I can’t let go of that anymore. As one of my managers put it so well, I’m stuck in learning mode.

Time Investment

This desire to learn on the other hand required so much time from me. I had to push myself so hard to read Wikipedia all the time and feeding myself with books. I’m entranced with books now reading one or two books every week. I’m a non-fiction lunatic that will read anything (except for biographies). I let my impulsive nature pick the book for me.

My main method of learning is definitely reading. I am a faster than average reader peaking at 700 words per minute so that speeds me up a bit. However, I spend at least two hours everyday reading.

Other people prefer documentaries, lectures, audio books and so on. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long (as you feel that) you’re benefiting. See what you’re willing to invest time in.

Don’t worry about retention but focus more on comprehension. We all forget so easily but an experience will stay with us forever.

Practicing A Skill

Much knowledge requires another huge piece of time investment. If you’re learning about a musical instrument you probably want to practice often. Personally, I’m infatuated with flight and aviation. Learning procedures in a flight simulator can take some time and so much knowledge about the plane. The quirks of landing a plane need to be measured so you can successfully put the plane on the ground.

Of course, the best part is you get to choose how much time you want to spend on something.

Critical Thinking and Creativity

Having been exposed to many subjects, you develop new ways of thinking. Your perspectives are much wider and have new ideas that came to mind that you never even imagined. This sharpens your thinking skills. In fact, you probably just start to think more often instead of being bored staring at the wall. Eventually, that forces to change your perspective all the time and think from many different angles. This fuels your critical thinking skills and you might even become a better debater.

When it comes to creativity, this is really obvious. Having many ideas presented to you on a consistent basis, you develop more curiosity. As you have more ideas in your head, they can become a catalyst for new concepts. You will activate many parts of your brain and link things together that were seemed irrelevant on their own.

Combining Many Subjects

Specialists have rarely explored other subjects in detail. They never get a chance to combine multiple perspectives in one so they miss the chance for innovative thinking and freedom.

For example, if you are familiar with Toyota’s KANBAN methodology, you might fight that it is a good software development methodology as well. Perhaps your knowledge of Non-Euclidean geometry can help with that machine learning algorithm that you are developing.

Conclusion

Learning what I wanted to learn has changed my perspective drastically. I was finally starting to discover myself just a bit more and what my desires and aspirations actually are.

I really wanted to become good at things. Many things in fact. Nothing left as a black box opening things and analyzing their internal mechanisms. I need to be balanced so I can have interesting conversations and debates with all sorts of people. As a result, I became more comfortable with myself and even enjoy my own company.

The biggest change for me is the amount of activities that I can do now. I’m never bored and always have something to explore. I do multiple and different kinds of jobs now. I volunteer and host my own things.

For those who read my blog regularly, you will notice that I’m directionless (unlike many more popular bloggers focusing on a single niche) and quite haphazard sometimes. The subjects I cover are all over the place and this is due to my unending curiosity for learning and practicing a new art. When I learn, I want to share that experience and teach it to other people.

What defines our identity?

For most, this seems like an easy question to answer. You are defined by what you studied and what you do for a living. If you file taxes, then you are an accountant. If you talk to computers everyday, then you’re probably a software developer. After telling one your name, you immodestly reveal and associate yourself to your interlocutor about what you do every day. Some other people use their roles in daily life such as “father” or “care-taker” because their so easy to choose and even easier to understand.

I was the same for most of my life. I did software engineering at university and spent 10 years of my life as a software consultant. I associated myself with computers and technology defining it as my identity. However, many years later, I became a part-time Uber driver as well, so have I become a driver instead of an engineer? My career took u-turn into technical writing. I still was in IT doing computer stuff but I wrote about it rather than writing for them. I write this blog, does that mean that I’m a blogger? So what am I?

Wikipedia has hundreds of articles about notable people. Their titles such as say ‘philosopher’ or ‘artist’ were described in a way to give the impression that it is all they did in their lives. They are essentially a personification of what they did and basically what they will be remembered for. It seems like a really shallow viewpoint to me to box someone like that but perhaps there’s no conspiracy behind it and it’s just true.

I naively entered university thinking that it will be a direction where I will have an intimate connection with computers. This was my dream since I was child. However, as an obsession, I learned much on my own and found myself not learning anything new at school. I pushed through thinking that this piece of paper would be the catalyst to my career and it wasn’t. I found my way into my career before even graduating.

Eventually, I started realizing that university was not teaching me to think or learn. Although many will title this as a conspiracy of some sort, I feel like the education system is designed to just teach us how to follow instructions and be obedient and submissive. Something that we will be doing at our future jobs worshipping our leads. Critical thinking and informing ourselves was totally out of the syllabus.

However, I saw some of my peers still studying after their basic degree. It seemed obvious that this path in university wasn’t designed to make you smarter but rather turn you into a specialist.

This was my nightmare because I didn’t want to be stuck in a tiny world where all I knew was what I researched. Instead, I want to learn about many subjects from technology and philosophy and everything in between. I wanted to become good at many things and have my life coloured with variety.

So technically, I’m a ‘generalist’ but I feel like it’s a condescending title that gives the impression that I was mediocre at everything. However, I believe that I have mastered some arts of all sorts. However, even that title wasn’t one that I didn’t want to have.

At the end, I realized that it was my job to build an identity. I could pick from some many and use a different one at each introduction when meeting people. However, that was far from my nature and what I always aspired to be. Someone creative and well-rounded. But, this couldn’t have a title because that was simplistic and benign.

One of my managers give me a compliment that I still hang on to. That I’m “always in learning mode”. It’s true, I’m constantly searching for meanings that I don’t know yet or prying electronics apart so I can see how they made it work. Not knowing something makes me feel so uncomfortable. Am I a ‘learner’ now? Maybe, but again that’s not really an appropriate title.

I’m still struggling to build an identity for myself and always wondered what I’ll be called when I pass away. I’m neither everything or nothing. I’m pulled into many directions but that’s more important and fun then being boxed to a single title that will limit me to just one thing.

Many of us are tantalized by many things so I believe it’s fruitless to keep our identity binary. As a result, I don’t think it’s necessary to have an identity of any kind and rather just enjoy what we do for both a living and in our free-time.

So what defines our identity? Nothing really. We are free to choose it. It’s a waste of time to think about. You are way more than what you do in your life.

Ironically, “Calling Out” by “Penguin Prison” is playing on Spotify. “I can’t be good at everything, so do me a favour and just take what you want!”.

Staying Comfortable in our own (Social Media) Bubble...

It’s pretty discomforting how much various websites keep track of every move as a way to sell that information and make you the product. I have worked on analytics systems myself and it’s jarring how much information is being recorded about you. While some are benevolent such as gathering data to enhance UX and optimize the application for the user, others have ulterior motives. I’m guilty of having extensive analytics on my website as well though I don’t sell it to anyone and it’s only for personal use: keeping track of my traffic. That doesn’t make it a good thing though.

The Bubble

Social media has been using this goldmine to have you more engaged with the content and hopefully click on ads. While when you sign up for the first time, the content is more varied, soon, without realizing it, the content you get is based on your political views and beliefs. If you’re liberal, most of the content you’ll see is posts about liberal politics while if you’re a conspiracy theorist, you’ll find articles that fit your views.

Your hobbies and interests are also taken into account and suddenly the ads will match your automotive passions with ads for selling car parts. It’s scary how websites know what search queries to suggest because of a conversation you had on the platform.

The bubble keeps us comfortable and protects us from content that we find bothersome or even offensive. You’ll constantly see things that match your views isolated from everything else. It’s not a coincidence that social media websites use subtle cues to discover your preferences. Every website has its own metrics and techniques but I’ll keep this outside of the scope of this discussion for simplicity.

Escaping the Bubble

This is the tricky part, you need to start viewing things that you don’t agree with. Visit websites from people with views opposite to yours and follow those with whom you disagree.

I’ll keep my political views aside for now but I noticed that content that seemed ridiculous to me is what others believe in. I used to judge these people but I’m starting to realize that those with opposing viewpoints are actually windows to other people’s minds. The truth is, they are just as confident as I am in what they read. The production quality of popular mediums about any opinion is excellent. So it’s tempting for all of us.

In addition, reading opposing news has made me realize that I could be wrong about something, and maybe, what other people are saying is actually true. It opened my eyes quite a bit and now my opponents sound less crazy.

This kind of behaviour is what prepares you for good conversation and finesses your debating skills. You’ll be forced to listen to the other one say something while you compare it with your own ideas. Just admit it, when watching debates online, you skip the parts of the opponent to listen to your preferred orator.

Minimize Tracking and Ads

With ad-blockers such as uBlock Origin, you can block tracking domains and leave your traces as much as a secret as possible. Almost every website has at least Google Analytics plugged in and it will be made useless for tracking you. Also, the ads will be invisible so you’ll be free from solicitation.

Conclusion

We’re living in a world where specialization in academia is keeping us in a test tube life where you only know what you’re studying. We stay home only knowing our families and nothing else. Our world is becoming more and more homogenized and even worse isolating. Even within our own circles, debates become awkward silence. Valuable conversations become impossible and our selection process becomes tuned to those we agree with.

Our perception of reality is black and white and the nuances won’t appear until you take off your rose-coloured glasses. The world we live in is imperfect and what other way to be mindful and accept it like that is by seeing all the different colours.

Widen you’re breadth and see your views grow, foster and become more varied.

The Sad Demise of Propulsion Controlled Aircraft

Sioux City Crash

In July 1989, a DC-10 chartered by United Airlines, Flight 232, crash-landed in Sioux City after a disastrous loss of all hydraulics rendering the plane uncontrollable. One-hundred and twelve souls lost their lives in that accident considered one of the worst air disasters in US history. The hydraulic fluid, which actuates the flight controls based on pilot input, leaked out after an uncontained failure of the tail engine severing the lines.

The hopeless last moments of United Airlines Flight 232

One off-duty training captain, joined the cockpit after hearing the explosion from the back. Through experimentation, he discovered that by manipulating the throttle controls, he could control the plane slightly and attempt a safe landing. While everything seemed under control, at the last seconds before impact at Sioux Gateway Airport, the plane banked hard and flipped over and burst into flames.

The terrifying final moments of JAL123 recorded on CVR.

Japan Airlines 123 Disaster

Four years before, in August 1985, Japan Airlines 123, was the subject of the world’s worst single aircraft disaster in aviation. An improper repair of the rear bulkhead caused it to rupture after several cabin pressurization cycles over hundreds of flights and slowly tore the rear tailfin. All the hydraulic pipes ran through the tail and their breakage caused again, all the hydraulic fluid to leak leading to the subsequent loss of all flight controls.

Again, the pilots followed the technique of the Sioux City flight. They wanted to fly back to Haneda airport but despite all the heroic efforts to control the plane for an incredible 30 minutes, fate was against them and they crashed into the mountains near Mount Fuji. As the single worst aircraft crash in history, 505 people lost their lives.

DHL Takedown

It seemed at this point that the aviation industry still didn’t learn their lessons after two similar crashes. Years later, in 2003, a DHL Airbus A300 cargo took off from Baghdad, Iraq towards Bahrain and shortly got hit from by a man-portable surface-to-air missile from Fedayeen terrorist group. It struck the left wing causing damage to it and subsequent fuel leak. The hydraulic lines ran through the damaged wing and all three leaked and failed. Again, the pilots lost all flight controls.

Captain Éric Gennote was forced to improvise again using the same technique as in the previous incidents. He managed to turn back to the airport but had to make two approaches because the first final was too close. As an incredible feat of flying, they managed to land the plane safely with a damaged wing, leaking fuel and no flight controls though they went off the runway. It was the first instance of a plane crippled by lost hydraulics managing to land safely at an airport without injury.

Other Incidents of Flight Control Failure

Many more incidents occurred over aviation history counting over a dozen. Wikipedia lists a comprehensive compilation of these types of incidents.

Throttle Only Control

All the pilots in the flights above learned that by controlling the throttles they could slightly control the plane with throttle commands alone. To climb, more power would be needed to increase the speed of the plane thus increasing lift. To descend, the opposite would be done dropping lift. Turning was done through asymmetric adjustment of the throttles while the engine with more power would cause the plane to lift from that side to turn in that direction.

However, despite the effectiveness of said technique, the flight paths tended to be erratic with constant pitching movements would cause a phugoid cycle. The plane would climb until it lost enough speed and pitch down and lose altitude. During the descent, the plane would gather up speed until it started climbing again. This rollercoaster ride made it hard to stabilize the aircraft and be the cause of quite the terrifying maneuvers.  

An amazing demonstration of a flight control-free landing in a simulator.

PSX Simulation

The developer of Aerowinx PSX, a Boeing 747 flight simulator, has created an excellent demo where they manage to control an aircraft with only throttle commands. As seen in the video on the side, we can see the first landing attempt to be aborted (go-around) only to return back for another approach and make a successful landing. While this is only a simulation, it shows that it is possible to control an aircraft without flight surfaces and only throttle control instead.

PCA Tests

Little did these pilots know, there was already software in development that would save the plane in cases like these. In 1993, NASA with the cooperation of McDonnell-Douglas, managed to create a system that would control and land the aircraft safely without any flight controls. It was dubbed Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (or PCA). The principle was similar to what the pilots in the mentioned incidents above attempted to do (by moving the throttles up and down) but done so systematically and automatically. However, since the system was run by software, it could be more precise and generate a more stable flight.

It was first implemented on an F-15 tested in the Dryden Facility and was demonstrated to safely land the plane that looked exactly like a normal landing. The increased stability was dramatic and the increase in control would be impossible to replicate by even the most skilled of pilots. They also tested the system on a passenger MD-11 aircraft with similar results. The MD-11 has its third tail engine set at idle to mimic the more common two-engine configuration found on most aircraft.

NASA’s demonstration of PCA

The system works through the autopilot with the pilots setting the heading, altitude and vertical speed that they desire and instead of manipulating the trim and flight controls, it would send the commands to the engines. No new sensors would need to be installed simply relying on the already existing ones.

PCA had an excellent success rate and landings were not only survivable but looked a lot like a normal landing. In fact, with PCA, I believe that none of the above accidents would have ever happened ending up being but a short NTSB report.

FAA Rejection

To me, the system seemed like a really trivial installation and with the software already developed, not very costly. However, the future of the technology was looking bleak. From Bill Burcham’s rough sketch to a prototype fully developed along with engineer Tom Wolf at NASA, lead to a system that seemed integral to future aircraft. However, that did not happen.

The FAA which oversaw the project concluded that it wasn’t financially worthwhile to implement such system. Their reasoning was that complete hydraulic loss was so rare, 1 in 100 million, that it wasn’t worth installing PCA onto the aircraft of the future. Enthusiasts of the technology such as Dave Hayes, from the Airline Pilots Association, and Dennis Fitch, one of the captains who survived the Sioux City crash, were thoroughly disappointed when this technology was thrown out.

Conclusion

No matter how rare that such incident apparently is, it’s happened so many times in aviation history. We can’t say it’s unlikely anymore. The 632 people who died from said failures certainly agree. Aviation is known to be the pinnacle of safety but recent times have shown that manufacturers have chosen a culture of profits and the consequences might cause even more incidents. Isn’t it enough that I mention the MCAS on the Boeing 737 MAX that resulted in the destruction of two aircraft and hundreds of deaths?

The above flights have been dramatized by the excellent Mayday documentary series:

Has Social Media Made Us Lazy Consumers?

The subject of the morality of social media has been done to death. We all know that it can help find organ donors but also has increased the incidence of depression and suicide in young people. I have the impression that these avenues have transformed us from researchers and content creators to consumers.

Most of us don’t do fact checking when reading newspapers or scrolling through Facebook feeds. People are vulnerable to believing everything they find as the Internet makes it so easy to not only misinform but also catalyse rumours and even legends. Anyone can write anything on the Internet with just a Tumblr account no matter how untrue it is. It creates the occult to mass hysteria. It’s amazing how mundane things can become viral based solely on drama.

Proper knowledge comes from multiple sources rather than a single individual posting about how Egyptian hieroglyphics indicate that the world is ending next year. Production value is high and an excellent narrator can make anything enticing. People just like to consume and spread facts no matter the fragile the source. I see this all the time with friends and family. Our minds are incredibly naïve and vulnerable to the occult and mysterious.

I’m guilty of this sometimes where I post a question on Reddit hoping to get answers on things that I can simply find with a Google Query, with a list supporting evidence and diverse sources. People do this on all forms of social media rather than do the research themselves. Most people respond with their anecdotal stories rather than posting something written properly with references.

I realized that I don’t want to use these forms of media because they don’t add value to my life or make me more intelligent. My reflections started when a phone company representative trying to sell me an expensive plan with unlimited data. I found myself quickly reflecting on this on a whim and told this person that “I’m not stuck to my phone”. It’s rare that I end up using more than 500MB of data per month and most of it stem from phone calls, navigation, going through my todo-list and a bit of browsing.

This never came to my mind a decade ago that we would become a vacuum for content. On the roads, on the bus, in class and of course on the bed, I saw people tantalized by social media content. From Instagram feeds to endless Tik Tok videos and Facebook. Scrolling, scrolling and scrolling over and over again. I was amazed at how much insipid and honestly useless content that people are hypnotized by.

In the reality we are living today, people don’t verify facts simply spreading them around creating conspiracy theories and even ideas that are quite dangerous. My peers, my friend and family often get attracted to some post with something ridiculous and I have to shatter a video or an article by actually doing some research to see if the claims are actually true. Usually not only do they seem untrue, but the claims are exaggerated and unbelievable to me, in other words, too good to be true.

I’ve been trying to escape these websites but the material is so enticing and it can be consumed endlessly. So much content that you will never be bored. It becomes an addiction finding myself checking these sites over and over again. It’s harder than I thought.

Humans are pretty smart but we tend to believe things that are superficially intuitive rather than the uncomfortable truth. Our dire need to know something means that we make arguments from ignorance. We have high regards to our human biology because the unknown makes us feel queasy. However, the frailty of our species is often forgotten and we realize that we need more effort to make sure our minds is full of useful facts and deep understanding of subjects.

I have seen myself transform from a content creator to an endless consumer. I’m trying to push myself hard to make things again and there’s a lot of learning to do. It’s just we want things presented to us in a Tik Tok videos rather than actually following a proper recipe.