okay howdy got a new mic holder howdy I've tried to make this video like three times and I can't quite convey the point that I'm trying to get at so we're going to try a fourth and at the end you tell me if you get what I mean here also this is all the stuff from the meat rocket we're going to get rid of most of it I am going to keep the stuff on the left here though my friends wrote These and I think they're funny and since meat rocket is over we get to reset the weiro back and it's so over counter and you know what I think I'm allowed a little freebie yeah all right I'm going to try to explain this using an example I am a professional artist this is a UAV your challenge is to build this however there are requirements the UAV needs to fly 10 km it needs to carry 10 lbs it needs to be able to take pictures and or videos it needs to be able to hover and it needs to be able to operate in gnss denied territory otherwise known as GPS denied territory I guarantee you there are thousands of people working on this exact set of requirements right now but for our purposes this is just an example I want to congratulate you because you are now an employee at bolock Mark grumel 3 Harris it's a big new company and it is the only company in the defense space that will exist after 10 years because AI is taking everything else and all these things do is just eat each other scenario one you are the Optics engineer okay this is this is you right here I gave you a really cool baseball hat this is a camera with a little flash this is a video camera your job as the Optics engineer is to make sure that all the optical things on this UAV work and they have to fit within the requirements so can this thing take pictures can it take videos can it do that at 10 kilm can it do that while it's hovering can it do that while it's in gnss denied territory can it do it without you know I don't know failing can it focused are you working at multiple focal lengths are you doing visible are you doing infrared as the Optics engineer these are the things that you are focused on so now I want to talk about what we call the great filter the great filter is this idea usually when we talk about aliens that every civilization has to pass some test and that test is the barrier between them going Out Among the Stars and like spreading out or just dying off and so when we think of great filters for Humanity we think of things like uh surviving a nuclear age surviving a mass pandemic surviving AI these kind of big things that we think o there's some potential even if it's an outside chance that it could destroy everything and everyone I like to think of great filters at a smaller scale so for a project what is the most likely bad outcome for the project what's the thing that we are trying to optimize against happening so for our Optics engineer at the bolock Mark grumel 3 Harris Corporation Incorporated LLC Incorporated I would argue it's not that they have to make the best Optics chain if they're an Optics engineer at this company they're good at doing this already and this company has all the resources it needs to go buy it elsewhere the reason this person is hired is can they do it can they do it under budget wow that's the worst dollar sign I've ever Drew D Dro Dr I'm having a stroke the great filter here is can you do it under budget that's the big thing and if you go over budget what happens honestly not a ton of stuff it's not like it's good but it's not going to like kill the project the project will probably go on even if it's a little bit over budget worst case if it's super over budget they descope and the requirements are no longer pictures and videos it's just 10 kilometers 10 lbs and they change it from a surveillance drone to one that's just going to bomb a bunch of innocent civilians scenario two you are the full stack systems engineer for avionics draw a little battery here this is like a 9vt battery right what else is an avionics thing can I get a Telemetry antenna okay this is a yaggi everyone tell me you recognize a yaggi antenna as the systems engineer for the avionics on this UAV Your Role is not as specialized as the Optics engineer what you have to do is take these requirements we're all still working in these requirements but you have to make sure all the these systems they all need to play nice together that's what a systems engineer does this person sees from the top down and makes sure that everyone is friends I have never done systems engineering in a professional environment but as I understand it it's actually a lot of human factors engineering and making sure that people are communicating well if you're a systems engineer I would actually really appreciate some feedback on this tell me if my understanding is wrong but I think systems engineering is like a very important role uh it's just not often understood exactly what it is anyway just like the Optics engineer you have a great filter this role isn't quite as specialized as an Optics engineer you're not dealing with the selection of a different sensor or grinding your own glass or really in the Weeds on like exactly what communication protocol we need between these two sensors what you're trying to do is look at system architecture from the top down and so you're making sure everyone plays nice and your great filter although harder to articulate is the whole system failing because of the interoperation between the different systems I need to I need to count on the number of times I've said systems for this air body play nice this is it this is your job in scenario 2 as a systems engineer for this project your job is to make everybody play nice let's talk about what happens if you don't pass the great filter does the project die probably still no bo lockmart is going to be able to go to some other Corporation some other company they could buy the IP for someone who has already done a similar product they could hire a consultant firm that might be able to do this I get inquiries like this for BPS people say can I use Ava for a thing do you want to do Consulting like that type of that type of work frankly if it's Bock Mark grummel 3 Harris they can probably just buy the company that already makes a similar thing and then mod it for their needs but the great filter here does not mean the project dies the great filter here does not mean the project dies so let's talk about scenario 3 folks we're going with brown on this one shout out to theor Brown this sucks I'm not using this in scenario 3 it doesn't matter where you work maybe you still work here and you make a bunch of money or I don't know what people do at defense contractors but you're still trying to build this you're still trying to work within these requirements but it is now a personal project it's a personal project and this has changed the rules in a bunch of ways I'm going to draw another drone cuz I kind of liked drawing the first one all right you're building this hopefully it looks better than that so what's your role in the personal project I'm asking a leading question but the role is everything you are the avionics engineer you are the Optics engineer you are the propulsion engineer you're the structures engineer you're the GNC engineer you're the flight software engineer you are the engineer for everything if the avionics don't work it's on you to fix them if the Optics don't work it's on you to fix them if any of these things don't work it's on you to fix them and it's on you to descope them if they don't work so bad that it's going to kill the project and this brings up the thing that I have been trying to express for this whole video maybe this is more analogy than I actually needed but I really want to express this clearly cuz I've tried three times now and I really want to get it right your great filter in this scenario is not that it costs too much it's not that the avionics play nice it's that the project doesn't happen at all don't finish the rules of the game change in scenar Mario 3 because it's a personal project and because you have 100% responsibility over all of these things your great filter is that you don't finish the project in scenario one if you don't pass your great filter it doesn't kill everything there are things you can do to solve this and the Drone can still get built bolck Mark grumel 3 Harris can still be happy in scenario 2 you can fail your great filter and there are things you can do to still solve the problem your avionics can't play nice and boock grumel 3 Harris can be so upset that they go we're going to go to bolock Mark grumel 3 Harris 2 and we're going to buy them and their avionics we're going to put it on there and you're going to get fired but the Drone is still going to get made in scenario 3 it's different the project doesn't finish at all with a personal project or with a project that is just driven by one person it is more important not that it doesn't cost a lot not that everyone plays nice together it's more important that you finish the project I believe this so deep in my heart and I actually think it is often to a fault a lot of the work that I do is not very optimized for cost it's not very optimized for the avionics being you know in communication in the most efficient way or the way that leads to the fewest bugs almost every decision that I make for BPS for the rockets that I build almost every one of those decisions is optimized for making sure the project CR crosses the Finish Line I love tapping the Whiteboard I get comments like these uh a bunch on videos where I show some strange engineering decision that is optimized for this and no hate to these people I actually get very few mean comments online I don't get none I mean people call me an idiot but like everyone calls everyone an idiot online but when people say these things like the thermal paste isn't the right way to solve this what they're optimizing for is scenario one or scenario 2 most most likely scenario one using the thermal paste and the Quant that I use it for the camera video that I showed it's there's Linked In the description down below but the the amount of thermal paste I use is not the right amount of thermal paste because it's not optimized for like if you were making a thousand of these things you'd want to use thermal epoxy you'd want to use a better solution but what I showed in that video is that I finished the project I got the result which met the requirements I finished the project and as soon as I could get the thermal paste to to work in the quantity that I used it the project was finished and I could move on to the next thing there are so many things in each one of these steps that it's it's important to just like keep moving forward much more that it's import than it's important to optimize for costs or optimize for you know good systems engineering the hardest thing in any personal project and I'm talking to you because I'm also talking to me is to finish the project the year is ending 2024 is coming to a close 2025 another great time for New Year's resolutions finish your projects bring them across the Finish Line I don't care if they are kicking and screaming and throwing the biggest tantrum ever get them over the Finish Line I didn't really do this the right way I said the great filter was don't finish but then these are like the positive results of the great filter it doesn't matter I hope I've conveyed the point that I'm trying to make here which is when you're doing a personal project you can't quite optimized for the same things and it's hard to express especially this thing because I don't want it to come off as if I don't care that something is expensive I do I mean I'm not going to spend 1 million bazillion jillion dollars on a thing if I don't have to it's just that when the cost difference is between like $25 and $10 and I'm going to need to order you know no more than 10 of those things if I already have the $25 solution it's actually a lot more important to me me that I keep moving onto the next thing than that I save those $15 I'm making this video as much for myself as I am for everyone else I need to hear this all of the time I think I do an okay job of it but I need a reminder it's really really really hard to finish projects and it's harder than any of the individual tasks that happen in these when I'm troubleshooting a can bus I have to remember the can bus isn't the thing I'm fighting the thing I'm fighting is getting to the finish line and so if I'm troubleshooting a can bus for long enough and I remember I actually don't need a Cann bus I can circumvent that if I use SPI or I squ C or RS 432 or whatever I can just ditch that because this isn't the thing I'm fighting this is not my great filter my great filter is that I don't finish the project all right I hope you enjoyed Joey B rants at the Whiteboard for a little while I found it kind of fun to do and I'm trying to make more stuff on the second Channel I guess it's the third Channel what whatever I'm trying to make more stuff on the shorts Channel I really like talking about these things I wanted to start a podcast about it at some point and I I think I'm just 2025 is the year where I'm going to be like I'm going to start a podcast and then never do it I am curious to hear in the comments if this is clear uh what I'm trying to articulate I I do really think it's hard especially with the cost thing because I don't want to come off as insensitive to the idea that like projects have to stay within a budget that is important it's not that this isn't important it's that the harder thing is actually just finishing it like I'm going to be so gentle when I say this but I know if you're watching this you have some unfinished projects I just I know the type of people who are watching this and I know you've got some stuff that you haven't finished it's okay I have it too we're all here together we don't we don't have to feel bad about it but recognize that this is the thing you're fighting it's not that it has to be the cheapest thing possible it's hard to bring things across the Finish Line That's the harder thing I actually think often times we can use this as an excuse to not get the project across the Finish Line when there may be cheaper options or Des scoping options which let us bypass this all together to still make sure we defeat this great filter that is probably enough ranting for now thank you very much for watching I hope your holidays are lovely whatever you celebrate right now I hope it's happy uh and if you're building a UAV with these requirements I hope you remember which one of these scenarios you fit in and what the actual problem is that you're fighting all right I will probably see you in 2025 and if I don't well I'm so excited I'm going to get to see you sooner all right goodbye Back To Top