Technology just do the same thing but differently

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”-Duke Ellington means that when faced with a problem then is your chance to do your best to fix it or create something to make the problem non-existent and treat the problem as an opportunity to adapt and innovate to solve a problem. I for one strongly believe in this saying because I’ve seen it in action. from in video games to on robotics teams to even some huge real-life events first for mankind like going to the moon and back.

An amazing example of Duke Ellington saying is a pen to be specific a fisher space pen. During the space race, the United States didn’t have a way to write in space and the soviet union just used pencils. But NASA didn’t want to use them because they would flake while being used, and it wasn’t safe for the astronauts and for the systems of the space crafts to use them. Then In 1966 fisher pens released a new pen that would work in zero gravity, underwater, and extreme temperatures. Perfect for space both the Soviet Union and the United States Purchased a large amount of them to be used for space fairing missions. The most famous of which was the Apollo 11 mission. But a pen used during the mission ended up having a life-saving unintended use. On that mission when Neil Armstrong came back from his famous moonwalk He knocked into a circuit panel and broke a breaker switch while in his spacesuit. with no way to properly fix it, he then used a felt space pen to complete the circuit and use the switch to get back home safely proving that for 2 very different people a pen proved Duke Ellington saying true.

Another great example is a personal story of mine about a vex robotics team I am on. Our team is building a robot for some competitions we have coming up. While we were building our robot for the competition, we realized none of our plans for the robot were going to work. So for the robot, we had to scrap it. However, we didn’t have a lot of time to design and build a new robot, so we decided to go with an existing online design. As a way to modify it though, we upscaled its chassis to build a simple rotatable unicorn horn in the front that will allow us to accomplish our goals for the robot. This also improved on the basic design that we found online. We also made a simple yet creative and unique design for our second piece to solve the problem of a lack of versatility. Another advantage for the unicorn horn is that it allows a way to solve unexpected issues and challenges that may occur, by being modular and easily modifiable. This will allow for fast and effective modification of the horn. This will allow easy adaptation to what we think is the best way to approach our different matches at our competition.

With both these things in mind, I have learned that “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”-Duke Ellington is one of the most accurate things I will ever hear. It is proven in history and in from what I have experienced in life, and it is something that almost everyone will learn in their lifetime whether they realize it or not.

image: “Space Engine” by K-putt is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0