I find it both fascinating and hilarious the impact of those of whom you interact with on a daily basis eventually begin to impact you and how you operate. From both mannerisms that begin to become common place among groups to the language you use to communicate with others. Example Take for example language - the more effective examples of language and the impact that some language has where other examples fall flat.
Seems obvious for the engineering community but hear me out: I believe something that all levels of engineers can benefit from is looking at abstract problems they encounter in their (or their companies) everyday function and trying to solve them in code. Yes a given technology may already exist to solve this problem and it is certainly worth evaluating it’s suitability for your needs - but what if you find a use case that hasn’t been solved for?
No seriously - this wasn’t my attempt at a clickbait title but a change that I believe has been pivotal in my adult life as both a professional and father/husband/community leader. What would you do with an extra 500 hours a year? Maybe pick up a new skill, maybe master and existing skill. Maybe donate your time and energy towards your community. Maybe just spend more time with family. Given you are doing something productive most of the time then in most cases you, those around you and your community will likely benefit from it.
I was having a conversation recently about how and why I chose blogging as an experiment that I was going to invest my time and energy into - and it quickly became a sound-boarding session for things I had and hadn’t considered (something I love about growth mindset individuals). The Pursuit I knew from the beginning that I wanted to pursue interacting with more people in greater capacities and both communicating the ways of which I think about things at a specific point in time and also sharing my thoughts with others.
For a very long time I have always been fascinated with home automation. It’s soo much more than just turning a light on and off with my phone. It’s about adding intelligence to my home that makes the lives of my family better by removing unnecessary tasks and optimizing how we operate. Example For example - take your standard consumer HVAC forced-air system in homes today. It’s an incredibly simple system that reads the temperature from a single point (typically a thermostat) and turns on and off the heating and cooling valves based on that.