One of the biggest struggles I face on my learning journey is that of pride.

I find myself in a constant battle with the side of me that sees me know it all. I want to think I know everything, and so when I find something new or contradictory to what I am working on; my immediate reaction is to shy away from it. However, that does not lead to growth; it leads to stagnation and even denigration as the ideas that I'm working off eventually fall apart or don't apply.

It's been a very tough battle, and in the culture of my peers around me, it's seen as cool and hip not to follow authority or wisdom. There seems always to be some new way of doing things that negates the need for wisdom. So I have to cut against the grain of my culture, as well as my instincts to move ahead. I've found that the sooner I admit that I am not the smartest guy in the world, the sooner I make progress. 

Plus, people have a hard time saying ill about you, as you can freely admit that you don't know. No one will call you an idiot when you say that you don't understand something, and if they do, they look like a jerk.

I've also noticed that when I stop acting like I know everything, I also start to see more people genuinely interested in sharing their ideas and giving me advice. 

Key takeaways:

1) Overcome pride to learn new things

2) You have to fight your instincts 

3) People can't say you're dumb if you do first

4) You become a teachable person when you put down your pride

Rabbi Daniel Lapin talks about what a leader really means and what it takes to become one.

By definition, a leader is someone who has followers. You can't be a leader if you don't have followers. 

Learning to become a leader, you must learn to become a follower. He talks about how you can't become a leader if you're not accountable to an external, higher entity. In Judaism and Christianity, we are raised to follow that ultimate higher authority, God. People subconsciously will perceive a good leader as someone that's not acting on their own highest authority. 

He brings up the example of his childhood; Daniel Lapin's parents modeled obedience to God. They show that through their obedience, it brought regularity to life and actions. Validating the idea of authority.

Key Takeaways:

1) Learn to lead by learning to follow

2) We have to have a higher authority than ourselves

3) Parents are obedient and follow the rules, which brings regularity to their life and actions, modeling what it means to be a follower

One of the new things I learned from Rabbi Daniel Lapin's book 'Thou Shall Prosper' is becoming more professional. 

He talks about becoming a professional by acting predictably. This really caught my attention as it wasn't what you'd normally hear when you ask someone what makes a person professional. 

By being stable and consistent in how we act in each scenario, we position ourselves as someone professional. We aren't rattled by the things that happen around us but are steadfast through it. He talks about when we become predictable in our performance; you greatly enhance our value to others. People greatly prefer normal to the alien. Un-predictability creates anxiety as the outcome is uncertain.

'If you really are to succeed in business, it won’t be because people think you are smart; it will be because people like you.'

Key takeaways:

1) Become more professional by being predictable

2) People prefer normal to the alien

3) Being un-predictable creates anxiety 

It's what we practice that we will improve our performance in, not necessarily the skill itself.

Key takeaways:

1) Practice doesn't make perfect

2) Practice builds muscle memory, which allows you to do it faster and more consistently

3) You only grow if you seek growth

I'm having some odd issues with the swarf toolpath that finishes the top cab of the model truck I'm working on. 

I keep running into faced and jagged finishes; it's really stumped me. I eventually had to put it off for several days and focused on the rest of the details to ruminate on the idea. 

My initial thought about why this issue was occurring was to do with the tolerance and smoothing options. However, since it's a 5axis swarf toolpath, there aren't any options to play around with the smoothing, which I find quite odd. Even playing around with the tolerances didn't seem to make much of a difference. The smaller decimal points I went, the more the machine would stutter with all the points it had to hit. And the higher tolerance, I would get bigger portions of faceted sides. 

I researched and found that there are a few settings you can play around with to improve the surface finishes, specifically for swarf toolpaths. Aparently, there is an internal machine smoothing setting that provides better quality parts. These are broken down into three commands read in the machine as P1, used to rough our material, P2 moderate tolerance, and P3 for fine finishing. It seems that the only downside to working with the higher detail setting is that of run time. From what I understand, this setting works by creating clean curved arcs between points rather than straight lines. 

I quickly identified these P1-3 settings in my post-processor by turning the setting "Use G187" to yes, and it added a P3 line of code into the program. I haven't yet played around with this setting, but I'm really looking forward to the outcome! I also found that my post tolerance was set to 2 thou by default, so I was able to lower that. I also noticed a 'minimum arc tolerance' set to 0.01," which seems quite high for arcs, so I lowered that to 5 thou. 

I also read about something called high-speed machining, which I thought was related to the actual speed the machine would move at, but it's actually referring to how fast the machine can read ahead in the code. I still have to do some more research into this, but it looks like another possible solution to my 5-axis problem.

I'm really looking forward to playing around with these settings and seeing if I can improve my surface finish quality on my parts!

I'm currently reading through the book "Thou Shall Prosper," and Rabbi Daniel Lapin talks about how two beings form each person. Understanding this will help us better know how to act and react to life.

The first of these persons is our physical body. We have instincts to indulge ourselves in immediate pleasure and only do what feels good. This is described as our heart. Typically more emotional than our brain.

The second of these persons is our spirit, also known as our mind. This entity is the part of our being that can think through things on deep levels and understand the best course of action. 

If we live by our heart, we live in a constant state of trying to please ourselves, eating whenever the fancy hits us. Scrolling on the phone for meaningless hours. It puts us in a state of just wanting immediate pleasure and also serves as a distraction from getting real things done.

Our mind, on the other hand, is more long-term focused. Looking for what makes the most sense with the whole picture in mind. What will bring long-lasting feelings of fulfillment. Living through our mind, we can make decisions that don't feel good in the immediate but return better rewards in the long term. It is our mind that wants to help, serve, and build, not our heart. 

If our body is damaged, say in the case of an accident. Our minds immediately repair and fix what is wrong and let our bodies take control of some aspects to elevate the pain. The problem is, if we let our bodies take too much control, then we lapse into a state of constantly trying to self-protect and conserve. That leads to a more selfish life, trying only to take and not give.

Key takeaways:

1) Two persons make up our being, the heart and mind.

2) Our heart is immediate gratification focused, doing what feels good in the moment

3) Our mind is what focuses on bringing long-term fulfillment, serving, and building

As a teenager, I've been blessed to see that you have the biggest opportunity to set yourself up for the future.

One of the biggest questions I seem to ask myself a lot is that of 'why wait?' there are so many opportunities ripe for the picking, and waiting several years until we are out of high school or even college before getting into what we love doesn't make any sense. Realizing that you can do a few things that can set yourself apart from those around you and get into your dream journey is not only possible but easy when you start going for it!

Speaking to my younger self here, you are in such an amazing position to build an amazing life filled with everything you could want. One of the things I've realized is that other people love to see the younger generation stand up and start working and often give a helping hand, where they might not go to someone older. 

Overcoming the fact that you aren't the smartest person in the world and humbling yourself to start asking questions is the single biggest thing we can do to make the first step toward wisdom. I struggle with this a lot, but I've found that the times I can overcome that impulse to be right or show that I am the hot stuff is when I learn the most. 

Key takeaways:

1) Why wait? 

2) Being young, you have so many opportunities

3) You aren't hot stuff, and overcoming that will help you attain more wisdom

One of the biggest things that I've learned through my self-education is that of personal responsibility. 

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people fail to succeed in life because of not taking responsibility for one's actions. When you don't think you are the one in control of your life, you leave it up to chance. I love the metaphor of a ship going through the ocean; if we are not the ones at the helm, the ship may drift.

As a teenager, I know that I am not in complete control of my life as I still live under my parent's roof. But that does not stop me from being pro-active and taking steps to be responsible for the good and bad things in my life. You may not be able to work or provide a living for the rest of the household, so you have to rely on them for your wellbeing. Take a step forward, take full responsibility for the things you do have control of, and realize that you are the captain of your ship, not those around you. 

Key takeaways:

1) People fail because they don't take personal responsibility

2) If you don't take the helm, your ship will drift

3) Even in situations where you don't have complete control, you are still the captain. 

A few days ago, I ran into an issue tracing a line onto a 3D surface to trace with an endmill. My sketch geometry would only project a portion of the line segment onto the face and not the entire thing. I also attempted to use the project toolpath directly, but that too didn't work that well due to floating off the part's surface and not cutting it as the 3D face would get steeper.

I sent out an email to Autodesk about this problem and sent in a simulated file of the two problems I was running into. They got back very quickly and even provided a walk-through video on how and why these problems occurred. 

The gist of the sketch project-to-surface problem was that by default, it would project the line to the closest points on the surface, so if I had a line at an angle, it would only take a tiny segment. The solution is to change the project method from the closest-points to an along-vector, which has you select an orientation on which to project the entire line segment direct onto your surface from the plane you select. 

For the project-toolpath, the problem was around the tool's engagement with the material. Since I was using a ball endmill, the tool's centerline would float over a steeply curved surface, as the tool would be engaging with the side and not from the center point alone. The problem isn't really a problem, it was just the way my workpiece was setup, and if the toolpath engaged as I had in mind, it would gouge the material pretty severely.

In the book "Thou Shall Prosper," Rabbi Daniel Lapin talks about forming friendships by creating ongoing obligations.

He says in Judaism, that 'friend' means indebtedness. Accepting gifts creates vulnerability; we are saying that the gift was something that we are better off with. You're admitting that you had a need when you say thank you. You're putting yourself in debt to them for receiving that gift. It puts you in a mind of wanting to repay it with a similar good deed. Creating this regularly sustains and nurtures a good friendship. 

Learning how to accept a gift is a skill to be learned. I've seen this many times in my own life where a compliment gets deflected, and I can unconsciously hear the receiver insulting the one giving the compliment by saying they don't know what they're talking about. 

Receiving a gift or service must be done with open arms, not shying away from what is given. When you fully receive a gift, you give honor to the one giving it and show that you are indebted to them. Saying that you are better off for what they did for you. 

Key takeaways:

1) Friendship & 'thank you' means indebtedness

2) Good friendships are built on a constant cycle of obligations

3) Learn how to receive a gift openly, not downplaying it