2016-07-21 13:05
When reading Andy Weir's The Martian I'm immediately impressed by the daily log style of writing. It's simple, but effective. I'm inspired to renew my efforts to log my daily activity, at least when it comes to work.
I think it's important to have a running log of our lives. As engineers, it makes us think critically about what we are doing and why we are doing it. Also, it presents an opportunity to remember where we were, and this is critically important, due to how easy it is to forget context.
One of the stand out characteristics of the main character, Mark Watney, is his unbreakable optimism.
It may seem obvious, but NASA works very hard at picking astronauts that have a lot of grit and determination. This is inspiring to me, because it's shown over and over that Watney remains optimisitic dispite tremendous odds against his survival. This is inspiring on so many fronts, as our daily lives can seem sometimes overwhelming. When everything is going againts you, remember that optimism is your light against the darkness.