Being Involved, Secret Defense Projects, Process Over Goals, and More
On Being Involved
If you are curious what being involved looks like, here is an example from an email I recently sent:
Subject line: Spring Internship – Thoughts and Updates
Hello,
First, I hope you had a fantastic Christmas! In this email, I wanted to share a few thoughts about my spring internship. Thank you again for this opportunity – I'm very grateful to be involved.
As I might have mentioned, I'd like to build my career in defense technology and am eager to meet people in the field and gain as much industry exposure as possible. I understand that meaningful contribution in a company often goes beyond day-to-day tasks, and I'd welcome any opportunities to contribute more broadly. This could mean sitting in on important conversations to better understand the bigger picture, taking notes during meetings, or taking on additional tasks that support the company, even if they fall outside my core role. (As an example, about a month ago I noticed the American Droid website was a single static page without much information and thought I'd ask to help expand it since I enjoy that kind of work; although, I saw yesterday it's been updated significantly.) Simply put: I want to be as involved and helpful as possible.
Regarding technical updates, I'll plan to provide weekly progress reports either via meeting or email, as I've done on past projects, unless you'd prefer a different approach. If possible, I'd also appreciate having the email addresses of the other engineers so I can stay in touch with their challenges and progress. (Who was working on the website?)
Another thing, I understand your time at Booz Allen Hamilton gave you experience with the government contracting process (I think). I find this fascinating and would love to learn more about it, as it seems important to how defense tech companies operate. If you have any recommended books or online resources on this topic, I'd really appreciate it. If American Droid pursues another contract during my internship, maybe I could get some hands-on experience with that process?
Thanks!
--
Eli Richmond
(And P.S., this internship is unpaid.)
3 Cool Things
Great Book on Secret U.S. Defense Programs 📕
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at
Lockheed by Ben Rich
This is a very fun read on the super secret Skunk Works group at Lockheed Martin in the 1950s where they built some of the most revolutionary aerospace stealth technology. It's a very interesting look at life inside secret government engineering projects.
Commit to Processes Not Goals 🏋🏼♂️
Meta-analysis on the Impact of Goal Setting
A tweet about a paper that basically concludes you should commit to processes (working out for 30 minutes a day) rather than goals (gaining 10 lbs of muscle). Our bodies speak the language of action.
Awesome Design Effect 🎨
Lenticular? Sliding
Window Effect? Vertical Slice Glitch?
I found this effect a long time ago in some phone wallpapers, but I found it again recently with this post. Supposedly you can get this effect with an AI image prompt provided in the tweet or use the free online editor for a more manual process. (When I found it back in the day, I actually wrote some Python scripts that did this for me. It's how I created the Spikeboss paddle design.)
Grow Your Network
Someone Awesome
https://someoneawesome.com
Typically, I provide a person I think you should know in this section... this week, it's your chance to return the favor! :) Send me an awesome person I should know – maybe it's a close friend or maybe it is a celebrity figure. You choose!