Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
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This weekly Newsletter explores my Curiosities about the Construction Industry. It’s meant to make you think, smile, and become a better, more well-informed Construction Professional.
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Summary
This week we will look at:
- One Musing: Nobody Wants to Work Any More!
- One Article: Lunar 3D Printing
- One Quote: Stay Away from Negative People
- One Meme: As-Built Body Types
One Musing
Last week as a follow-up to the Article about people not wanting to work anymore, Jeff Carmichael shared the below Twitter thread, and after digging I found the compilation image I knew I had somewhere. Check out the full Twitter thread for more context on each article snippet.
This really begs the question though… Why does every generation feel like this is the case? Why do we always romanticize the past??
This makes me think back to this NY Times article that was written in April of 2021 talking about Life before COVID Lockdowns and restrictions and why we romanticize how great it was.
As we look back on “the good old days,” we need to ask ourselves: Was the past actually as great as we remember it?
If you talk to any “old-timer” they will always tell you when they were your age the music was better, the sex was safer, and people worked harder…
If that’s the case and has been the case for generation after generation, then how does our society continue to become more and more sophisticated and well-built?
I won’t argue against the music point though. No comment on the sex.
Maybe, just maybe, we don’t remember the past as accurately as it really was?
For instance, researchers have observed that memories associated with negative emotions fade more quickly than those associated with positive emotions. This phenomenon is known as fading affect bias.
Hmmm, so maybe there were lazy people in every decade and generation that didn’t want to work and we are blacking out that part of our memory?
We’ve all felt it: The family vacation was full of arguments, sunburns and hangovers, but somehow you remember only the quality time, gorgeous weather and delicious meals.
In 1994, two psychology researchers, Terence Mitchell and Leigh Thompson, sought to offer and test a theoretical model for this phenomenon, which they called “rosy retrospection.”
Maybe, just maybe, as technology and the world evolves, work looks different for the current generation? And the older generation is upset and fighting the change?
Anyways, that’s my rambling thoughts on the topic. Told through memes. It’s always been as good/ bad as is it right now. People are people.
They will always be the same with the same motivations. It just appears to play out a little different to a generation that is looking at the past through rose-colored glasses.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment. Tell me if you agree or disagree… I’d love to hear your perspective.
One Article
ICON To Develop Lunar Surface Construction System With $57.2 Million NASA Award
ICON, a leader in advanced construction technologies and large-scale 3D printing, announced [on November 29th] that it has received a contract awarded under Phase III of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The nearly $60 million contract builds upon previous NASA and Department of Defense funding for ICON’s Project Olympus to research and develop space-based construction systems to support planned exploration of the Moon and beyond. ICON’s Olympus system is intended to be a multi-purpose construction system primarily using local Lunar and Martian resources as building materials to further the efforts of NASA as well as commercial organizations to establish a sustained lunar presence.
One Quote
One Meme
You could argue that the Design and Shop Drawings avatars should be switched and I’d listen but As-Builts are always the same…
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Welp, I gotta go get back to work… These kids just don’t want to work anymore…