Most of the things you worry about never happen

Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay

I have been working with the acoustic design of timber buildings my whole career, but it isn’t until this past year that actual buildings are inaugurated, and people move in. The building process is slow, and it takes several years from the start to the end user getting a new home. And even then, it’ll probably take another six months until you know whether you did a good job. If you hear nothing, that is. If something goes wrong and the tenants perceive annoyance, you will probably learn about it much sooner.

The first time I did a site measurement of a building in which I had been involved in the design I was so nervous that I threw up in the morning. And I will never forget the feeling when the approved measurement values started showing up in the display of my Norsonic. What a relief! I got stronger that day. One important lesson I also learned was that the things I had worried about were no problem whatsoever, and the parameters I had felt confident about was barely approved. That was an eye opener and a good learning experience.

Last week I went on another measurement tour in the south of Sweden. I was doing measurements non-stop from Thursday-Saturday with two additional travel days before and after. I did a site visit to an amazing timber project that I have been working with last year. It is an extremely nice pair of buildings with a strong focus on sustainability and premium timber design. And there was no excuse for lousy acoustics, it had to be very good. If I compare this site visit with my first one, I was of course very nervous this time too, but I was never near throwing up – because I was stronger now and more experienced. But the same pattern emerged. I had been very worried about a design change we did with impact sound insulation from the balconies at a late stage. It was a gamble on gut feeling – as is quite common in acoustics – and when I measured the resulting impact sound insulation, it fulfilled the requirements by a huge margin. This was the thing I had been most worried about. And I was completely wrong! On the other hand, another parameter that I felt totally confident about, was barely approved! Shocking, frustrating, and very important.

You can never let down your guard in civil engineering and the design of buildings. Never take anything for granted, because if you are working with timber buildings, you will often find yourself in uncharted territory. Thus, you should tread your steps carefully. But that does not mean that you should always throw everything but the kitchen sink on a given problem. Somebody’s got to pay for it. So, as an acoustician you must take some risks. You must gamble on your gut feeling and pray that it works. So far so good. Of course, sooner or later I will make a boo-boo, but has anyone in the history of mankind ever learned how to ride a bicycle without ever falling off once? If you are an aspiring cyclist, you can perhaps reduce speed at first to a somewhat survivable velocity. But don’t go to slow either, cause then you’ll never make progress.

So, what’s the takeaway from all this? Personally, I will make a mental note that the enemy is probably hiding in plain sight. That, and that worrying is completely pointless 99% of the time. Honestly, how many times have the things that you worried about come true? And how many times did the unexpected hit you instead? It might be a good exercise to write a journal and write about things like this, to keep you on your edge and assist growth.