Wait…This Is Actually Kinda Cool: Finding the Intriguing in the Complicated
I will be the first person to admit — when I look at a lecture slide in class that contains complicated and nuanced material, “intrigued” is probably not the first thing I would be thinking.
If I’m going to be really honest with you, my first thought almost always consists of the equivalency to “static noise” — the second I see an equation or line of code I don’t understand, my mind goes pleasantly blank as I enter the phase best known as “completely and utterly zoning out.”
It’s hard to get excited about something that you don’t entirely understand, and it’s even harder to get excited about something you have been trying to understand, but it simply hasn’t clicked yet. Add a two-week project deadline and 12 other credits on top of this, and it becomes easy to hate the material you are attempting to master.
This isn’t exactly the most ideal mindset to have, but unfortunately, it is a mindset that is difficult to snap out of, especially as the pressures of midterm and finals season build to their peak. But throughout the late-nights studying and the five coffee cups you may or may not have had today, it might prove useful to remind yourself of something I’ve personally been trying hard not to forget: that the work that you and I are doing is so incredibly cool (and a little impressive, to be honest).
Now if you’re anything like me, you probably rolled your eyes a bit at that sentence (I know I did when writing it), but the point still stands. Engineering, although immensely difficult, inherently complicated, and the source of my wrecked sleep schedule, is also the amalgamation of several working parts coming together to harmoniously produce groundbreaking results.
All the elseif statements, class structures, .hpp files, and polymorphism that I dreaded learning about for the EECS 280 midterm are also the concepts that allowed me to code a working, complex multiplayer Euchre card game interface.
I mean, c’mon… that’s pretty cool. I actually did that! It sucked a little (a lot, actually), but I did it, and I can use it, and it was the product of my thinking and abilities. And now I can play Euchre whenever I want.
Behind every nuanced line of code or complicated math equation lies a phenomenon waiting to be unpacked and explored. Your manipulation of these pieces of information, whether intentional or not, is marked with a seed of untapped potential for its usage and application. Right now, the work you are doing is hard - there’s absolutely no denying it. But one day, you’re going to be able to take this material and apply it to a complex system that outputs a response that is integral to a new age of technology and information.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that you should take a second to acknowledge the fact that, although your messy diagrams and red-marked computer terminal look thoroughly unimpressive right now, they are the stepping stones for an achievement that, one day, you are going to look at and pat yourself on the back for.
The awe you might feel when looking at the likes of innovative rocket launches or biomedical nanotechnology can all be traced back to the complicated lecture slide you can’t help but glare at today. So rather than allow your brain to automatically place a level of disdain towards the material, stop it in its tracks. Look at what you are learning and, rather than trying to immediately master it, think about what you could potentially do with it. Try not to view it as a to-do list item, per se, but as a puzzle you’re trying to solve.
Again, I will be the first one to admit that this is a million times easier said than done. But once you break through this initial barrier between you and your work, suddenly your classes and degree become less of a pain and more of an intriguing puzzle for you to try and put together. And maybe the next time you see a completely blank starter file or 400-line long .hpp file, there’s a little part of you that feels a little… intrigued about how to approach it.