ALTRAV I was already pretty comfortable with calculus & Co-ordinate Geometry from my Math 1 & 2 honors courses in high school.

I have a brain to which math comes easily, & I was told math & physics honors were the only way to win a scholarship to uni, other than a teachers scholarship. It worked & General Motors gave me one to do mechanical engineering. Civil engineering would have been a lot more use later, out in the Pacific islands, but that wasn't available to a poor kid from the bush.

Meanwhile don't forget it is engineers who have to keep the wheels on your beautiful creations.

I got bored with Pagewood, & joined the navy to fly fighters, Much more fun, & the navy even had a system & encouraged us to continue our studies through Durham university, UK. They has "schoolies" on board to co-ordinate & help us with this.

Later I went motor racing, & a brilliant amateur engineer who's day job was as an investigator of sales tax with the tax dept. showed me just how little the universities had taught us.

Together we built the most successful racing engine ever in Oz for my F2 Brabham. It finished every race it was entered for, second in the first, then won either outright, or it's class win in every race for the next 20 months. It was only sold when I was given a formula 1 drive. It was his privately gained knowledge of metals & how to use them that made it so reliable & successful.

Yes I know Mr O is a bit of a joke, he actually thinks sociology, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, are useful, where as it is only wasteful tax payer funding that keeps them going. The less of them we have the richer we will be.

Granted archaeology cam make for interesting documentaries, if they weren't usually aimed for such a dumb audience.

Hassy, your a breath of fresh air in an otherwise smelly place.
I applaud you on your achievements, now that's what I'm talking about.
I realise that not everyone can be as capable as the next guy, it is something you either have or you don't.
You are born with it.
I have always felt sorry for people who have no natural ability or passion.
I get the impression some of them feel lost and confused as to their future and opportunities in life.
I was fortunate, because I was born into an engineering family, and like yourself had one of the best teachers who also had the runs on the board to prove it;
My father.
But I was also lazy, and could not be bothered trying to put the effort into something I KNEW I would never need.
So I focused on what came naturally and enjoyed the most, in doing so, as the saying goes; I'VE NEVER WORKED A DAY IN MY LIFE!

ALTRAV, wouldn't it be great if we could just get this understanding to our kids when they need it.

My son is much more gifted than me. He has way surpassed me in ability now, but we couldn't get him to work at school. He wanted to be a fighter pilot, & despite also being a natural at math & physics, would not put in enough effort in to get the necessary results to make it through the selection process.

After 12 years of engineering in the navy he is very highly skilled. However he keeps coming up with new ideas for earning a living, so I don't think he is really happy.

Yes isn't it great when your job is what you would want to do as a hobby. I've been lucky that way too, pity my son isn't so lucky.

Hasbeen,

Please continue. Tell about when you became an astronaut and founded the first colony on Mars but no one knows about it because it had to be kept a secret from the KGB.

Mr O, actually I don't know how you found out, but yes it's true Hassy is one of the team leaders on the Mars project.
Unfortunately for you, your big mouth and little brain has now put you in harms way and as of now there is a contract out on you for divulging top, top secret information.
So I would not take the same route back, whenever you go somewhere.
Always try to be in crowded places, and never, never, stand still too long.
And one last very important piece of advice, ALWAYS look over your shoulder.

ALTRAV,

I don't think I need to worry about Hasbeen because he's off the planet, so to speak.