...because it's my job.

Another interesting question I've had to field from interns, during an internship exit interview:

"How do you all know so much? How did all of you learn all this stuff? Everyone in the group knows so much about so many things. It's daunting to think of what I'd have to do to get there."

First: what a flattering thing to hear from your intern. I love being called smart! ☺️

Second: it's reasonably straightforward to get to the point I'm at. All you have to do is: not quit.

That's it. That's all you need to do. Start - and don't stop.

It's not that mysterious, if you think about it. Electrical engineering is my job. I've been doing this work 40+ hours a week, for almost 15 years. I was studying it full time for five years before that. It'd be kind of weird if I wasn't good at it by now. Two decades of practice with zero meaningful ability is a red flag in any field.

It's not always easy to "just keep going". Projects get hard. Bugs are frustrating. Deadlines are stressful. Experience helps, but these factors never vanish completely. They're like complexity - managing complicated things is inseparable from our job as engineers.

I find it encouraging, however, that in spite of all this technical complexity, there's one thing that's not complicated: deciding to show up. Often times, one more day is all you need.

There's no secret to getting to where I'm at. All you need to do is keep on going.