I’m screwed.
That’s my considered opinion. Screwed.
I’m midway through what was supposed to be a fulfilling career in IT and Software Engineering and it has become a soul-crushing endeavour.
I’ll spare those reading this the pity party I was planning for myself. If you are interested in what spurred me to create this site and the background behind it. See the About Page.
Moving on, this site is going to become pure business. What I’m working on, what I learned recently, what my thoughts are on what to learn next etc.
I’ll be honest - my dream job is SpaceX. There I said it. It’s a dumb idea for someone in my position - but that’s what I’m aiming for.
Here are the numbers.
SpaceX’s acceptance rate is less than 1% of all applicants. That’s more competitive than Ivy league.
The average age of an employee at SpaceX is 29 to 31. I’m 38, most likely 40 by the time I’m done with preparing to apply. Their youngest hire, at 14, actually works on the Starlink team, which is where I’d like to be placed, specifically. This is number I cannot control. Let’s put it to the side.
Two. Two Years is all the formal schooling I have. I’m not in a position to acquire a four-year degree. Financially, that doesn’t make sense for me at this point. But if there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, I can teach myself nearly anything which doesn’t require a physical lab. It also helps that SpaceX considers experience in addition to just a degree. I do have that.
I currently live in MO, Starlink is based in WA. That’s a distance of ~2000 miles. But If I actually land a role, I’ll figure that problem out when it comes.
Income. Let’s say I land this role. From my research, I’d actually be making less, and working ten-times as hard for it. At this point in my life, money isn’t worth as much as it used to be. My current role has provided the stability I needed. This next phase is about working with purpose.
So those are the numbers. A mid-career software engineer, looking to join the most competitive, engineering-driven, mission-oriented company on the planet, with a two-year degree, who lives 2000 plus miles away.
I’m screwed. But let’s do it anyway.
Getting Organized - Knowns and Unknowns
A way of strategizing a way forward is to categorize things into a “Rumsfeld Matrix” (Yeah, that guy. I know, I learned the proper name of this just now too.)
“The Rumsfeld Matrix is a decision-making framework used to categorize knowledge and risk into four quadrants: known knowns (facts), known unknowns (recognized gaps), unknown knowns (untapped intuition or hidden facts), and unknown unknowns (unpredictable “black swan” events). Originally popularized by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, it helps teams identify what they understand, what they need to research, and where they are most vulnerable to surprise.”
Known Knowns
I view Starlink as my best shot for working at SpaceX. It’s the division which best aligns with my current role and background. It provides me a great deal of Known Knowns right off the bat. I understand how the Internet works, how TCP/IP protocols function, and have a lot of great experience writing systems on top of this stack. It’s much easier to build off this foundation than to start from scratch, such as being a mechanical engineer. Not to mention being apart of a team which maintains a space-based network whizzing around the globe at 17,000 mph sounds pretty bad-ass.
Known Unknowns
Now, things I know that I don’t know. Math. A lot of math. Surprisingly, in my role I don’t apply much advanced math to most problems I tackle. Most of what I work on deals with basic arithmetic, the occasional exponent. Obviously lots of boolean algebra. I do know where I want to go will require a greater understanding of math and how its applied, and honestly I’m looking forward to this. I feel as though AI tools are robbing us of critical thinking and learning advanced math is a great way to counter that.
Understanding how communication and protocols work in space and satellite systems is the largest known unknown I can think of so far. Using AI, I was able to get a sense of specific topics to focus on. My north-star is understanding mesh based satellite systems, routing algorithms, and simulation at scale.
Along the way I’ll become familiar with as many topics I think would be adjacent to the above. I believe in knowing enough that when you need to work with people in adjacent disciplines, you want to come to the table with enough foundational knowledge that you can have a meaningful conversation instead of asking “dumb questions”. Knowing a little about a lot of things can reduce this scenario.
Unknown Unknowns
This is the part which excites me the most. I know that what I’ve pre-planned is just the tip of the iceberg. Uncovering new topics, skills, understanding is exciting. It reminds me when I was in my early twenties, and flipping through books on TPC/IP seeing so much I have yet to understand and eventually learning it.
My Workflow
Because I’m a older, I have an advantage. Wisdom. I know how I learn best. I know what has worked for me in the past, what doesn’t work for me, and how to tailor my learning in a way that works for me. This should make the progressing much more efficient.
What I’m not going to do is learn all the math, then learn C++, then learn space topics. What I am going to do is learn just enough math to unlock a specific topic, understand that topic, then apply it to a problem in that topic right away. Then I’ll write an article, illustrate it etc. for a more casual audience. Doing the later forces me to reflect on my own understanding and gaps, build a mental model etc.
Next Steps
That’s my crazy idea. The first thing to tackle is publishing this site which I can use for tracking my progress and publicizing this journey.
My rough outline of what I want to focus on can be found on thecurriculum page.
For progress tracking, seecurriculum page.
PS
- Thanks to Andy Weir and his book “The Martian” for the idea on the hook for this post. I love that book.