We all know this feeling when we are on a tough project…
We have this deadline and this model to finish because we promised to our clients that it will be finished… But then, we fall on something we didn’t expect… that we have NO IDEA how to solve
The client is waiting… and we are stuck
I have been there…MANY TIMES… and it doesn’t feel good
Do you know how I proceed in this kind of desperate situation?
Well, I have 2 main methods…
The first method is to try to contact the experts I know on this topic.
Because, most of the time, when you are stuck, a simple information is the only thing you need to get unstuck
Sometime it’s because we have some hole in our understanding…
(Wether you want it or not, we all have things we don’t know about)
Sometimes it’s because the information we need to solve the riddle, the connector we need to make the link between what we know and what we want to solve… simply doesn’t come to our mind
(That’s probably the most frustrating… when you know you know it, but for an unknown reason, you can’t put a name on it)
This mainly comes from not having the right “key foundational knowledge”
Experts can give you a new angle, a new WAY to think about this concept this will create the link you need to get unstuck.
It worked for my colleague Piotr so many time… he came to me saying he wanted to show me something that he was struggling with, and then after looking to his model, the first remark I made reminded him of a special way to do the simulation or about something that had totally slipped out of his mind… and it was all he needed to finish his simulation
(No need to say he was frequently asking me to look at his models after that… )
The second method… I use it mainly when I don’t have access to experts
The second method is to consult my “personal knowledge vault”
What is that??
Well, that’s the place where I put my old engineering books or to the course materials that I have accumulated through the years ;-)
(Yes, I have a fancy name for that)
There’s everything you can imagine inside:
• Old engineering textbooks
• Course material from my time in the university
• Even online courses that I purchased on internet and printed out
Here’s a fraction of it (that’s only the books that are on my bed table…):
If a non-engineer person would take a look at all that, they probably would asked me why I kept all those material…
But I know perfectly why!
Sometimes, just passing over the name of the chapters remind me of some things I studied in the past and I forgot about
…and sometimes it is really all you need to solve a tough project that would take you otherwise a lot of energy to complete.
Just like that, a simple glimpse reminds me of the way to do the things…
and I bet it also happened to you, right?
(Must be an engineer thing ;-) )
Do you have your own « personal knowledge vault »??
If you don’t, I advise you strongly to start building it by gathering all the material that you know will help you later on.
This is not time lost, this is an investment of time and resources that will make you GAIN a tremendous amount of time and money when you will be on a tough project.
After all… what is a small investment of 100 USD when it can make you gain 5000 USD on a project (or much more), a lot of time, a lot less stress and also the satisfaction to be ready to tackle anything that will come to you with confidence?
I am not even mentioning the fact that collecting the right material, learning and applying them is an important step in the direction of Mastery of the topic.
Interested to improve yourself and become incredibly much better in FEA?
What are you waiting for…?
## Join my courses FEA Design System ##
That’s a series of 4 courses: The Role of Simulation, FEA Basics for Designers and Material Properties.
