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Unread 07-16-2012, 10:51 AM
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Karthik Karthik is offline
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Re: FIRST is really looking into the Einstein problems

Quote:
Originally Posted by Taylor View Post
What you, and your team, experienced throughout 2012 certainly inhales audibly and I can't fathom what it's been like (I wouldn't want to). What Patrick said rings true.
I'm having trouble connecting the dots between Jane's post about learning from the engineering processes of problem solving, troubleshooting, and documentation to your taking it as an attack to your team.
Tragedies happened. We've learned from them, as individuals, as teams, as a community. Why choose to focus on the hurt and distress rather than embrace the lessons that have come? Everybody "cares about the robots" - otherwise we'd be doing science fairs. Otherwise there would have been no investigation, involving people across North America, some not even involved with the 12 Einstein teams Can't we also care about and celebrate the processes, the professionalism, the experience of healing?
In every tragedy, there is obviously some good that comes out of the lessons learned. Please excuse me for drawing some parallels to situations which were completely beyond the scale of what we saw on Einstein, but some people in this community are so blind through their rose coloured glasses that it's the only way to make them see anything. (Again, trying to be very clear here, that I'm comparing the scope of the events on Einstein to any of these tragedies, I'm just trying to make a point painfully clear)

After Hurricane Katrina there were many lessons learned about disaster management. Did anyone think it was appropriate to say "Oh, what a beautiful day for America. I've learned so much from this!"? God, I certainly hope not.

Perhaps the peanut gallery needs to spend a little more time trying to understand what our teams are going through, and a little less time trying to put a positive spin on everything that happens. Sometimes things just suck. If I sound angry, it's because I am. I'm frankly a little tired of people trying to tell me that I should be "thankful" for Einstein. Should I be thankful that I had to wipe tears off of a student's face at a time when she should have been celebrating a Chairman's win? Was it really "beautiful" when a once in lifetime opportunity was stolen away from our team by a "hacker"? While you're all celebrating the forthcoming FMS whitepaper, perhaps you should remember that there are multiple victims here who aren't in the mood for celebration. Some members of the FIRST community, who actually get it, have been incredibly supportive, while others have just shown us a complete and utter lack of respect.

The Simbots are trying to move on, sorry if we can't do it fast as the rest of you want.
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:: Karthik Kanagasabapathy ::
"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm" -- R.W. Emerson
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Full disclosure: I work for IFI and VEX Robotics, and am the Chairman of the VEX Robotics and VEX IQ Game Design Committees
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