Engineering is a team sport.
Getting philosophical, that means every aircraft and spacecraft is a tangible representation of the combined knowledge, intelligence, and ingenuity of every single person who worked on it. From the person who drafted the first shapes on paper, to the technician who added the last strokes of paint, all of those people applied their individual strengths and skills to make something truly incredible.
A YouTube video I watched about a month ago beautifully echoed (and expanded on) my thoughts about this.
For those who don’t know him, Adam Savage was one of the primary hosts of the show MythBusters back in the day. As the name suggests, the premise of the show was to prove or disprove all sorts of myths—but really it was just an excuse to do some unique, fun engineering.
These days, he has a YouTube channel chock-full of fantastic content: visits to museums like the USS Hornet, updates on props and other projects he’s building, surprisingly insightful and inspiring answers to viewer questions, you name it. If you have even a sliver of a creative or technical interest, I’d recommend it.
In the past few months, the channel has added videos of him touring the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, in honor of a number of its galleries re-opening after a complete renovation.
I want to share one in particular where Adam shows off his personal top five artifacts at the NASM’s locations. This is for two reasons: one, he tells an excellent story about each one’s development and how they came to exist the way they are. And two, I love his excitement and enthusiasm for each artifact, especially at the very end of the video where he expresses similar feelings to the ones I shared at the start of this email.
I’ve added the video below. It’s pretty short at just over nine minutes long, perfect for when you need to take a break from your own work.
If nothing else, I hope his energy proves infectious for you and gives you a little boost of inspiration for whatever you’ve been working on.