🚝 International railways, embracing subjectivity, and mindfulness for engineers

Let’s get back on track!

Engineers are typically assumed to be logical thinkers. But we can be so much more than that.

To succeed, we need to use our whole brain! And that’s just part of what we’re covering in today’s newsletter. Read more below!

👀 In today’s newsletter:

• 🚝 A huge investment in high speed railways

• 👷🏼‍♀️ Subjectivity in engineering work

• 🧘🏽‍♀️ Becoming mindful

• 🔥💵 Hot Job – Senior Software Engineer

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📚 MUST READ

🗺️ Connecting 6 Influential Countries Through Rail System

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a group of six countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE to cooperate among common objectives. One such project they are working on now is a GCC Rail System. Like most projects of this size, it’s had plenty of starts, stops, and derailments. But it seems they are pressing forward. Estimated to have a total length of 2,177 kilometers, it will span from Kuwait, through Saudi Arabia, and into Bahrain. Conversations and planning started on this project in 2004, with original completion scheduled in 2018. Obviously, it hasn’t happened yet.

Part of that is because the economic stability of many of these countries is tightly connected to energy prices. Global oil prices tanked in 2014, which shut down progress. Now, prices are on the rise, leading to more expected investment. Some experts predicted $167 billion in investment for the project.

The railway is expected to use diesel locomotives, with passenger trains able to reach speeds of 220 km/h, while freight trains will be limited to speeds of 80-120 km/h.

🏆 CAREER TIPS

The Importance of Embracing Subjectivity

It has taken me a long time to realize a hard truth: Engineers must embrace subjectivity.

I thought that my intellect would carry me through any workplace challenges I faced. I was wrong. A number of 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.

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 world is increasingly becoming more and more automated. Embrace subjectivity. There isn’t always a right answer, but when you are people-focused, good things happen.

🚀 TRENDING NEWS

• MIT develops tamper-proof ID tag for cheaper and secure authentication

• Sensor scavenges energy from wire’s magnetic field

 GADGETS OF THE WEEK

📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATION

🧘🏽‍♀️ Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Chade-Meng Tan

Chade-Meng Tan is one of Google’s earliest engineers and a personal growth pioneer. In this book, he offers a proven method for enhancing mindfulness and emotional intelligence in life and work.

Meng’s job is to teach Google’s best and brightest how to apply mindfulness techniques in the office and beyond.