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Wednesday, January 30, 2019

"Effort" by Jacob R


Of all the group projects that were assigned as a class grade that I was apart of, the most interesting one had to be in my sophomore year when Exploravision was assigned for honors chemistry. It was one of the few group projects that involved competition from all over the United States with a grand prize for the top three groups that participated. The goal was to come up with the best innovative idea that could better improve the world envisioned in the next twenty years. Necessary subjects that were required to be mentioned included research in technology and describing the steps it would take for it to become a reality along with the pros and cons and the obstacles that came with it. This was certainly a competitive project, but my group and I did not take it as seriously as the teachers intended it to be.
On September of 2016, the assignment was given to us. My group consisted of me and three other friends who at first felt like the assignment could have care towards it. There was a Saturday Talon that followed the first day it was assigned and my group and I felt like putting some effort into it. The effort is taking time to brainstorm an idea that seemed very much impossible and trying to force it to be possible. The first idea involved the use of perpetual motion, a concept of an everlasting motion that somehow didn’t require energy or a force to keep a device in motion. The idea started out like a light that led us to believe that it was the idea that should be accepted and any rejections towards it should be wrong. My friend who originally brought it up became the most excited as this theory had the capability to revolutionize how we use energy by using a source that is capable of providing endless generated power. Unfortunately, it was completely shot down by others who felt like it was physically impossible for such a device to exist, and the internet sources that we found strongly supports their argument. The likelihood of that concept being a reality is the same as “...dumping a bucket of
water onto a pit of fire and the water freezing as an outcome.” From that point on, we felt like it was better to careless towards the assignment and place more care into other classes assignments and other activities that we felt that mattered more to us. Some upperclassmen who have completed it gave us life-changing advice when doing such tasks. They said, “The amount of effort that should be put into something should be proportionate to how much you care about that something.” With this in mind, we came to a better idea for the topic of our project. We all agreed it was better, more functional, more realistic, and also most likely already accomplished by some company or a man in engineering. It was just a masterpiece that only high intellectuals could think of. The new and improved idea was to attach a couple of floaties to buildings when there’s a flood to make them float somehow.
It was brilliant. It required thought-provoking intelligence that only a person who takes over thirty-minute showers or lays in bed staring at the ceiling for at least two hours could think of. The concept originated from the idea of tossing a jumper house into a pool and seeing it float. Although this used the maximum amount of brain cells to even think of such an innovation, we put the least amount of effort into it. For every deadline, we started and completed each task five minutes before it was due. For every explanation that was required for the pros and cons, we typed a page of something within a minute. For every picture that was needed to be drawn, we sketched a simple two-dimensional house sinking in water. If we felt like we shouldn’t care about the assignment or at least care enough to get that A, then we should give it the same amount of effort. That’s when I learned how to manage and distribute my effort into a variety of tasks.
When the results did eventually come back to us, we were notified that our team actually got an award for it. It wasn’t the top three, but it was an honorable mention from the program. When we received the award, we all looked at each other in absolute shock since we had very little care towards this project. We knew there were ideas that were more complex, had more utilization, and contained actual care towards the project. Others who knew about our idea were also surprised. With the assignment, we learned that certain tasks should require certain amounts of effort depending on our will to care for it. Too much effort may not be worth it in the end, and putting too little effort is just careless. Instead, it should be distributed based on the number of tasks at hand and how much each one matters to the individual.

19 comments:

  1. Congrats on your award Jacob! I love how you told your narrative and the description you included. You explained what your project was about in an easier way to understand it and wrapped up the end very nicely sharing what you learned from the experience.

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  2. Not only was this piece really good, it was also a lesson that's usually learned through experience! I really loved this piece and all the thought processes that went into how the order of events went. Throughout your whole piece, I couldn't even imagine working on something like that, lest even contribute if I had a group! I was really glad that you were able to pull through! Overall, this piece was really nice! Kudos to ya!

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  3. Jacob, I really enjoyed this blog piece about the concept of effort! I liked the shift that occurred throughout the middle of the piece, in which you and your group started turning the project around for the better! It was really motivational. I also liked the conclusion, in which you tied up everything from your struggles to your successes about what effort truly means. Nicely done!

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  4. Yet again I am surprised by the level of sophistication and eloquence of this blog's writing. I did not expect such a powerful story to be told through the eyes of someone I know. As someone that was part of said exploravision project, you have opened new doors and ways for me to view this experience. The recollection of memories and thoughts are constantly in flux and change depending on scenario and person, most obvious with your interpretation of the events and my own. Truly inspirational, I am so glad that you had decided to write your blog pot on this experience.

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  5. I found your post very entertaining. The fact that you got an honorable mention by putting in minimal effort was very entertaining and made me laugh. I remember Exploravision being one of the worst science projects I have ever experienced since it was hard to come up with ideas. It was fun to read that your experience was somewhat similar to mine. Good job!

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  6. This was very interesting to read! I loved how you explained the necessity for there to be a distribution of effort to make ideas and projects come to life. This was very inspiring in that it was so realistic to how group projects usually play out and the amount of effort that is usually put forth. Overall, good job!

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  7. Jacob, your experience with ExploraVision was very entertaining to read! The inclusion of thoughts and opinions from you and your peers gives useful insight to the reader on your perspective about the whole project. Awesome job on the narrative as well as your honorable mention!

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  8. Jacob, great job on telling such an amazing experience. Right off the bat you caught my attention because of your affective use of description. I found this piece very interesting to read because it was so inspiring. Great job.

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  9. Wow that was very interesting. You explained it very well and gave a good perspective on effort. Sometimes we neglect effort and get a good result and sometimes not so good result. It depends on the situation. Overall good job on the project and the witting! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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  10. Hello Jacob, thank you for sharing us your journey of the Exploravision project. I really like on how you explained what Exploravision is in the first paragraph, it gives the audience( especially the ones who did not participate on it) a brief background on what the competition is. I also liked on how you narrated it with first person point of view, it brought me back numerous memories of the competition and especially the first talon that you described. Furthermore, I really like on how you gave the audience an insight of how your group came up with the idea, it allowed the audience to see your perspective. Great work in narrating your perspective and congrats on the award!
    - Jean Andre Molina Period 4

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  11. The experience that you shared is something that I can relate too as you illustrated you and you're groups effort into your idea and how you learned and succeeded by finding a new way rather than sticking to the traditional way. I was able to keep my grades up through learning this through experience. Letting your subconscious think about certain issues help you find a solution. I was immersed through the way you wrote this.

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  12. This was amazing!! This was not only interesting to read, but you gave some good advice throughout that can help others if needed. Good job on your project!

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  13. Jacob, this was a very interesting piece. The advice you were given is very inspirational and you learned from it. I'm glad you did so well on your project! Well done!

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  14. I'm glad you did well on your project and I love how you actually listened and followed the advise that your upper-classmate gave you because usually other people sometimes don't follow advises given to them and that could end up for the worst.
    Good Job!
    -Kiyla Nunez.

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  15. This takes me back! I loved how you turned it into a lesson and I loved the advice. Congrats!

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  16. As many know, events in your life change your perspective and your convictions constantly. Here, you were able to describe such an event and let your perspective be known to many. This practically forces people to think about their convictions and whether they disagree or agree with your ideas. Overall, this piece was great.

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  17. Wow Jacob you did an amazing job creating your perspective on effort and the throwback to the exploravision project. I’m glad people saw it the same way that I did. You did a great job of connecting effort on how much you care about a subject. -Nathan Brown

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  18. This great personal experience that you had gave me many lessons that I learn. It was an amazing piece and I learned that as long as you put the amount of effort as your passion then eventually you will succeed. - Eric Chang

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  19. Congrats on getting honorable mention!! This project brings back so many memories. The advice the upperclassmen gave you is priceless. Your narration was spot on. You explained each part of the project very well form the idea to what you and your group members thought about the project as a whole.Great job!!

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