🎄 Energetic holiday lights, subjective careers, and unlocking our potential

🎄 Psychologists suggested in a report that surrounding yourself with vibrant holiday lights could trigger happy hormones! However, it's important to consider the environmental impact. These dazzling displays consume a significant amount of energy. Read more about the report in today’s Must Read.

Also in today’s newsletter:

• 🏆 Embracing subjectivity to succeed

• 🐾 Finding your hidden potential

• 🔥 Hot Job – Senior Principal Cyber Systems Engineer (DevOps)

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🎁Holiday lighting joy and energy

I don’t know about you, but I love going to see Christmas and holiday lights. I love them on my Christmas tree, in my town, and enjoying impressive displays.

I’m not the only one. And psychologists are even explaining why these colorful lights bring us joy. The bright lights trigger happy hormones. Sounds great! But of course, there is another side to this. They use a lot of energy.

In 2015 there was a report that holiday lights in the USA use up more energy than some entire countries like El Salvador and Ethiopia do in a year! These days we’re doing a better job of using LED lights rather than incandescent bulbs because they use 80-90 percent less energy!

💡 So enjoy your holiday lights, but make sure to use energy-efficient bulbs and set them on timers so they aren’t running while everyone else is asleep!

🎨🌉 Embracing Subjectivity and Creativity as an Engineer

In school, math and science were natural for me, unlike subjective subjects like writing or art. I chose engineering to hone my skills in math and science to create exciting things. However, the path hasn't been as straightforward as I expected. It took a long time to realize the hard truth: 

🎞️ Engineers must embrace subjectivity.

I thought that my intellect would carry me through any workplace challenges I faced. I was wrong. Several years ago I landed a role that had elements I was completely unfamiliar with. Market development, sales, building a nonexistent team, and charting a course for product development to connect with a new segment of customers. To put it frankly, I failed. No one told me what I did or helped me understand what I could have done better, but I got gently moved off of that initiative and into a different role. 

For a while I spent time blaming everything else for the failure - my leaders, lack of resources, working with a market that wasn't there, blah, blah, blah. The truth is, I was hoping someone was going to come and give me the answer to the test, or it was just going to make itself known to me. That didn't happen.

🔮 People are complicated. 

To lead them, develop products for them, and deliver services to them, we have to care about the different things that make each person unique. The right answer for one person isn't always the right answer for the next.

Developing new technological and scientific innovations involves more than just finding correct answers. As automation grows, it becomes crucial to nurture and enhance the unique human qualities within ourselves and those we guide. This journey isn't typically easy, but anything worthwhile rarely is.

In this section you’ll find the latest jobs as featured on:

jobs.interestingengineering.com

• Fictiv shifts focus to sustainable manufacturing in 2023-24, says CEO

• Origami-inspired folding solar-powered light that charges your phone

• World’s largest electric cable close to power, could light 1.4 million homes

• Burkina Faso scientist fights malaria with innovative gene tech

📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATION

I just read this, and it’s awesome! Highly recommended! Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space.