My greatest mentor

Is it possible to know a person without ever meeting them in person? Without a doubt, yes. My family now live in my wife´s grandparents old house since 2019. I never got the honor to meet them because they both died before I met my future wife. The person I am referring to here is Kurt, her grandfather. By walking in his footsteps and observing his sometimes very creative and especially fast solutions to technical problems on the premises, I think I now know him very well. And the reason is that his approach to problem solving is as antithetical to my own that is humanly possible. The contrast couldn’t be larger even if I tried. And that is an invaluable lesson to a guy like me.

Habits, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistJuly 19, 2022personality, productivity, focusComment

Lessons from parental leave

Tomorrow starts my third week of 100% focus on dad duties. It’s been an interesting time, and a fantastic boot camp for learning better micro-management skills. No matter what task you are trying to accomplish, the only person that can have your back every single time is your past self. Preparation and Routines are crucial. From breakfast to dog walks, you won’t have time to look for misplaced stuff. I have found these weeks thoroughly enjoyable, and it has been the perfect healing that I badly needed for my soul.

Acoustics, Engineering, ParentingRikard ÖqvistJuly 12, 2022kids, parenting, engineering, civil engineering, consulting, acoustics, personalityComment

Done is better than perfect

A trait that is common among engineers is the desire to make things perfect. We find beauty in a system that is well-designed and optimized so that nothing is there that shouldn’t be there. The system does exactly what we want it to do. This desire is a blessing and a curse. Without it, buildings would probably collapse, and airplanes would fall from the sky. But the strive for perfection can also be the reason a building never gets built or an airplane that never flies. Have you ever worked on a project where you have done a perfect design only to realize when you are finished, that you have made incorrect assumptions regarding the foundation? Like proof-reading your doctoral thesis without detecting a spelling error in the title?