Toying Around

At work today, I got to toy around with some equipment worth millions. I use the word ‘toy’ because I was literally fooling around with it to figure out how things worked. It is nice that we get to play with these kinds of toys at work because I would not be able to afford these kinds of toys at home.

Then, while this was happening, a co-worker and I were discussing about the cost of these expensive toys. You see, the actual cost of manufacturing these expensive toys is probably not very much, certainly nowhere near the millions that they are sold at.

However, the engineering world is filled with a lot of these high-margin toys. We engineers just love these toys to death and just cannot afford to live without them. They are our bread and butter in many many ways. Therefore, one should always treat toys with respect.

Which was exactly what I did when I was toying around with it.

We had to move it out from another place to ours, in order to fool around with it. It took 3 people to remove it and carry it all the way up to our lab. Then, we were a little worried that the table would not hold the weight. So, we ‘borrowed’ another piece of furniture to use.

Thing is, although I am currently not working in my comfort domain, I have been picking things up rather quickly. Basically, I just plunged myself into the deep-end from the very first day. I figure that that’s the best way to force myself to learn.

Good thing is that although it is not my comfort domain, I am not entirely n00b about it either. I do have some related knowledge that I can leverage on. Personally, I think that my co-workers have been quite nice. I have basically been bugging them with queries.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish my learning process soon and start working on the solution instead.