In undergrad, our engineering 101 course had a team project/final to use the Lego robotics kits to make a robot “mars rover”. There was a play field, and we got points based on the ability to touch ping pong balls, carry ping pong balls, and return ping pong balls to the collection area.
Points were deducted from teams based on “material cost” (each Lego had a price) and “labor” (time to build your robot). Scores were doubled if your robot was autonomous, which was mostly achieved by following black lines on the white table, because the Lego kits included light sensors.
We got to the last day , and realized that what we had was NOT going to work. We scrapped the whole thing, and made a tiny car that just ran straight out, hit a ball, and ran straight back.
On the mission day, they moved the table out of the sub-basement and into the classroom. The change in lighting jacked up everybody’s pathfinding, so everybody’s guidance failed. We failed the cheapest and won the day.
Still can’t figure out of the test was a catastrophe or if we learned the EXACT lesson that he was trying to teach.
I had a boss that everyone else had trouble working for. He was a workaholic and openly told us that he would keep giving us more to do until we said it was too much. Crazy smart and didn’t sleep much, even after work he was working out or learning to play guitar or speak Spanish or how to cook. The combination of that edict and his own example, (he did more than any two of us put together) mostly people took it as a challenge, like they weren’t supposed to say no. I took it at face value, did what I could do well, goofed off plenty, took my PTO.
Whenever we got year end reviews he would give me points for time management and keeping a work/life balance. I do not actually have good time management.
We are still friends, years later. His work habits broke up his marriage but I don’t think he really slowed down.
I still have this job. Figure managers come and go, but honestly I liked working with workaholic guy.
Cleaning. With ADHD I cannot manage enough executive function to do things well, so good enough is good enough.
For example, I hate laundry, it’s the worst chore. But I’ve created shortcuts that are all stupid and mediocre, but it makes the chore doable. I don’t fold my shirts, they just go in a bin, I don’t fold shorts or tank tops, I don’t do much for pants. I don’t care about wrinkles and it’s at least clean and put away and that’s good enough
currently safe at home by not being a highly motivated individual.
In life in general honestly. But honestly overworking is far more likely to burn me out rather than actually achieve anything groundbreaking so Id rather just work within my limits and only as much as im required to do at any given time instead of trying to strive for anything far too good that I will probably never even reach.
