Guys (and Julia),
Let me first tell you how extremely proud I am of you. At the beginning of the summer, I really wasn't very confident in your performance, and I was worried that you wouldn't be ready in time for the competition. However, after this weekend, it was clear that I had been so wrong; you are the greatest group I have ever worked with, which includes groups outside of Spaceset.
Despite the way the Romanian team acted during the competition, you did the best job you could. Even without the leadership positions, you persevered, and at 4 in the morning, with 3.5 hours until deadline, it became apparent that it was your experience and training that was going to bail this company out and allow us to meet the 7:30 deadline.
Once again, I cannot begin to say how proud I am of all of you. Despite not winning, I know that you have learned a valuable lesson from working with the other two teams. You may not have the technical expertise that foreign teams can flaunt, but 14 years of Whitney's battle-tested experience in the Finals has prepared you for another role: to lead. When I held the training session earlier this summer, I wasn't doing it to prepare you for technical debates. What I was doing was preparing you to lead the company, preparing you to put together effective slides under pressure, and that is what I saw you do at 4 in the morning. For that reason, I know that I have trained you well, and there is nothing more that I can do for you. I am sorry that we were paired with such an arrogant team, a team that couldn't recognize and appreciate your qualities until it was much too late.
Obviously, there are some things you can work on. Despite having almost all of the qualities that I could ask for, you are still missing one that my training didn't prepare you for: assertiveness. The Romanian team took control early on, and by not voicing your own opinions, they saw that they could walk all over you, and continued to do so. Hopefully, you have learned from that, and when you next go to the Finals, don't let any technical expertise intimidate you; technical expertise is simply what's going to get information on the slides. You have something more than that: the foundation to ORGANIZE this information and SELL it to the judges. You have the foundation to LEAD the company, not serve as another team's slaves.
Recruitment is another important thing to keep in mind. Structure and Auto each have only 1 returning member, and without sufficient recruitment, Spaceset is dead next year. You guys need to try to get a permanent advisor, someone who will help you initiate more aggressive recruitment.
That's pretty much all I have to say. I wish you the best of luck next year and beyond, and I'll definitely see you around for a playday/banquet!
-Kevin Nguyen
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Lessons Learned
Over the weekend, despite not winning in my last year in the competition, I did learn valuable lessons regarding management. Yes, while managing the Structural Design department during the year, I was questioned regarding my decisions (ahem, Allan HAHA), but experience usually justified my decisions. The fact that I had been around before to see similar decisions contribute to a winning proposal allowed me to convince my department to follow my judgment.
This weekend was entirely different. Last year, when the Romanian team was with Durango High School, the experience card worked. Durango has been in the ISSDC for many years, and is a powerhouse just like the Whitney team. Last year, it was the Romanian team's first year, which caused them to often submit to Durango, despite their arrogance. Additionally, there were only guys on the Romanian team. This year, some of the girls were complete bitches, and contributed to reducing the quality of the work seen in the Operations and Human Factors departments. Despite having 14 years of experience in the competition, my team's experience card was completely thrown out the window when dealing with the Romanian team.
At least I felt I did as much as I could do. Because the majority of the three-team company was Romanian, they voted one of their own members, Mircea, as the company president. Yes, I would've liked to be president, but I do admit he was really chill, and he allowed to make many of my decisions on my own. Therefore, regarding my own decisions, I didn't really have anyone to answer to, so I was essentially the company president, just not in name. Yet, this shows that the task at hand, to manage the Romanian team members (many of them were voted department directors just through majority), was entirely too large to be accomplished.
There were lessons learned with my own team members as well, not just with me. With the exception of the Automations department, every department was under control by the Romanian team. This competition showed that they were eager to hog the power, but at 4am, with only 3.5 hours left until deadline, it became clear that they needed my team's experience and training to bail them out. Guys, I hope you are reading this; your talents are there, but you do need to be more assertive. Otherwise, other incapable people are going to walk all over you.
It is said that you learn more from your losses than your victories. I had hoped that not qualifying for the finals last year would provide enough lessons, but apparently I was wrong. I hope that next year, my team can come out with this year's undoing and use it to pull out a win. At the same time, don't repeat what the Romanian team did and completely shut out the other teams; retain a sense of openness, but also establish a sense of authority. Unless you're teaming up with Durango next year, there is no one out else there with the experience to efficiently put together a proposal in a short amount of time.
Through this competition, I have learned to deal with people who have no regard for my advantages, whether that be experience or prior training. Perhaps this will serve to be a good topic for some application essay in the future, because this weekend really did have life lessons.
This weekend was entirely different. Last year, when the Romanian team was with Durango High School, the experience card worked. Durango has been in the ISSDC for many years, and is a powerhouse just like the Whitney team. Last year, it was the Romanian team's first year, which caused them to often submit to Durango, despite their arrogance. Additionally, there were only guys on the Romanian team. This year, some of the girls were complete bitches, and contributed to reducing the quality of the work seen in the Operations and Human Factors departments. Despite having 14 years of experience in the competition, my team's experience card was completely thrown out the window when dealing with the Romanian team.
At least I felt I did as much as I could do. Because the majority of the three-team company was Romanian, they voted one of their own members, Mircea, as the company president. Yes, I would've liked to be president, but I do admit he was really chill, and he allowed to make many of my decisions on my own. Therefore, regarding my own decisions, I didn't really have anyone to answer to, so I was essentially the company president, just not in name. Yet, this shows that the task at hand, to manage the Romanian team members (many of them were voted department directors just through majority), was entirely too large to be accomplished.
There were lessons learned with my own team members as well, not just with me. With the exception of the Automations department, every department was under control by the Romanian team. This competition showed that they were eager to hog the power, but at 4am, with only 3.5 hours left until deadline, it became clear that they needed my team's experience and training to bail them out. Guys, I hope you are reading this; your talents are there, but you do need to be more assertive. Otherwise, other incapable people are going to walk all over you.
It is said that you learn more from your losses than your victories. I had hoped that not qualifying for the finals last year would provide enough lessons, but apparently I was wrong. I hope that next year, my team can come out with this year's undoing and use it to pull out a win. At the same time, don't repeat what the Romanian team did and completely shut out the other teams; retain a sense of openness, but also establish a sense of authority. Unless you're teaming up with Durango next year, there is no one out else there with the experience to efficiently put together a proposal in a short amount of time.
Through this competition, I have learned to deal with people who have no regard for my advantages, whether that be experience or prior training. Perhaps this will serve to be a good topic for some application essay in the future, because this weekend really did have life lessons.
Highlights of the Weekend
1. Many of us have Romanian accents (mainly me, Grant, Ian, and Andy) now. Enough said.
2. It's often said that sleeping while standing up is a physical impossibility. Wrong. An hour before the final presentation, I personally witnessed Mel Shin sleeping while standing up. A God-given talent? You decide.
3. I finally experienced sleepwalking for the first time. During the last night, I watched Knocked Up in another room with Grant, CJ, and Ian, and the next morning, I found myself in my own room. Apparently, all the guys had knocked out, and my dad had to bust in with a master key. According to my dad, I then walked down two flights of stairs, opened the door to my room, and went to sleep on my bed. I honestly have no memory of this.
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND (and the source of long-term Spaceset inside jokes): "WiTricity is a very tricky thing. It's like a sneaky snake." *makes snake motion with both hands* "It's a very unpredictable technology. This isn't WiTricity; this is WiTrickery." Obviously, you have to hear me say it in a Romanian accent to laugh a little, and you have to have been a member of the Spaceset team to REALLY laugh.
2. It's often said that sleeping while standing up is a physical impossibility. Wrong. An hour before the final presentation, I personally witnessed Mel Shin sleeping while standing up. A God-given talent? You decide.
3. I finally experienced sleepwalking for the first time. During the last night, I watched Knocked Up in another room with Grant, CJ, and Ian, and the next morning, I found myself in my own room. Apparently, all the guys had knocked out, and my dad had to bust in with a master key. According to my dad, I then walked down two flights of stairs, opened the door to my room, and went to sleep on my bed. I honestly have no memory of this.
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND (and the source of long-term Spaceset inside jokes): "WiTricity is a very tricky thing. It's like a sneaky snake." *makes snake motion with both hands* "It's a very unpredictable technology. This isn't WiTricity; this is WiTrickery." Obviously, you have to hear me say it in a Romanian accent to laugh a little, and you have to have been a member of the Spaceset team to REALLY laugh.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Blue, Yellow, and Red
I AM SO FUCKING TIRED OF THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT.
I don't care what you say, WiTricity IS the future. This is MAGNETICALLY COUPLED RESONANCE, not ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION. What harms humans is ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION, but what we're dealing with is magnetically coupled resonance, which doesn't affect the surrounding environment, including organic matter.
And what is this shit about WiTricity being in development for 100 years? BULLSHIT. Tesla only ENVISIONED this idea; development only began a few years ago, and we have made SUBSTANTIAL progress. This technology can be commercially available in 30 years, asshole.
This isn't point-to-point transmission, like lasers; if you place something in the way, resonance will still continue. I can't believe you fucking laughed at me like I knew nothing. MIT researchers already proved this to be true, so if you're laughing at me, you're laughing at MIT. What a fool.
Speaking of MIT, what the fuck is this about the work being done by an MIT STUDENT? EXCUSE ME. MARIN SOLJACIC IS A FUCKING MIT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN PHYSICS. HE WILL FUCKING BLOW YOUR HEAD AWAY IN A PHYSICS BATTLE ANYDAY. Shame on you on trying to have a physics battle with me when I clearly don't have a technical background in physics.
So fucking stupid. And you call yourself a physics teacher.
I need to calm down. I also need sleep ><
Less than 6 hours till deadline.
I don't care what you say, WiTricity IS the future. This is MAGNETICALLY COUPLED RESONANCE, not ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION. What harms humans is ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION, but what we're dealing with is magnetically coupled resonance, which doesn't affect the surrounding environment, including organic matter.
And what is this shit about WiTricity being in development for 100 years? BULLSHIT. Tesla only ENVISIONED this idea; development only began a few years ago, and we have made SUBSTANTIAL progress. This technology can be commercially available in 30 years, asshole.
This isn't point-to-point transmission, like lasers; if you place something in the way, resonance will still continue. I can't believe you fucking laughed at me like I knew nothing. MIT researchers already proved this to be true, so if you're laughing at me, you're laughing at MIT. What a fool.
Speaking of MIT, what the fuck is this about the work being done by an MIT STUDENT? EXCUSE ME. MARIN SOLJACIC IS A FUCKING MIT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN PHYSICS. HE WILL FUCKING BLOW YOUR HEAD AWAY IN A PHYSICS BATTLE ANYDAY. Shame on you on trying to have a physics battle with me when I clearly don't have a technical background in physics.
So fucking stupid. And you call yourself a physics teacher.
I need to calm down. I also need sleep ><
Less than 6 hours till deadline.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
In Order to Prove Oneself...
Tomorrow I embark on an epic trip to Houston, TX, where I will literally be awake all weekend. I'm pretty nervous; failure is indeed not an option. Unfortunately, one of my partner teams has been pretty stubborn through email, and I hope they aren't the same in person.
Communication and cooperation are key. Without one or the other, it's all over.
I also get to eat Texas steak. Top 1% beef in the country. Ruth's Chris? A measly 3%. Take that, beeyatches!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Moment of the Day
Kanjana, me, and my brother are walking towards Edwards Cinema at TC. 5-6 girls suddenly appear and wave to my brother and scream "HII BRENDAN!!"
Me (to Kanjana): Daaang my brother is such a PIMP.
Kanjana: Is that true?! HEY BRENDAN, ARE YOU A PIMP?!
-awkward silence-
Classic.
Me (to Kanjana): Daaang my brother is such a PIMP.
Kanjana: Is that true?! HEY BRENDAN, ARE YOU A PIMP?!
-awkward silence-
Classic.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Am I Ready?
Draft from earlier today:
I'm scared about today. Things seem different lately, but I can't quite grasp why. Perhaps I'm just freaking out. Things have gone up and down before, but I've always managed to pick myself up. I don't know, it just seems different this time. Somehow. I'll just have to let today play itself out and see how it goes.
Update to the draft: So it's finally begun. And there's not a thing I can do to stop it. I really don't know if I'm ready to face reality, to let go.
"What the fuck have you done lately?" I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore.
I'm scared about today. Things seem different lately, but I can't quite grasp why. Perhaps I'm just freaking out. Things have gone up and down before, but I've always managed to pick myself up. I don't know, it just seems different this time. Somehow. I'll just have to let today play itself out and see how it goes.
Update to the draft: So it's finally begun. And there's not a thing I can do to stop it. I really don't know if I'm ready to face reality, to let go.
"What the fuck have you done lately?" I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tell Me When To Go
Mannn I absolutely love my job. I went to the CPE today with the kids, and I realized that I'm well-liked by both the big kids and the little kids. I'm like the big strong guy type of figure (okay guys, shut up). For instance, a couple of 6th-graders were riding their bikes, and one of them was like, "OOH KEVIN, RIDE MY BIKE! I WANT TO SEE YOU GO FAST!"
And to think that after the first day on the job, I wanted to get fired.
Also, moment of the week: There were 3 kids playing on the bouncy bridge in the playground...getting hyphy wit it. HAHAHA it was so hilarious. I swear, I could've just played "Tell Me When To Go" in the background, and they would've fit in.
And to think that after the first day on the job, I wanted to get fired.
Also, moment of the week: There were 3 kids playing on the bouncy bridge in the playground...getting hyphy wit it. HAHAHA it was so hilarious. I swear, I could've just played "Tell Me When To Go" in the background, and they would've fit in.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
MAAAAAACBOOK!
My Macbook Pro came in today. About freaking time too; it should've been here last Friday. Needless to say, when I heard the Fedex truck pull in this afternoon, I screamed like a little girl as I ran downstairs to answer the door.
Then my neighbor called and left a message: "Yo, Kevin, a Fedex truck just came to your house. A guy came out with a MACBOOK-SHAPED BOX. HURRY THE HELL UP AND CALL ME BACK SO I CAN COME OVER AND WATCH OPEN THE DAMN THING."
Today was a wonderful day.
Then my neighbor called and left a message: "Yo, Kevin, a Fedex truck just came to your house. A guy came out with a MACBOOK-SHAPED BOX. HURRY THE HELL UP AND CALL ME BACK SO I CAN COME OVER AND WATCH OPEN THE DAMN THING."
Today was a wonderful day.
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