Do you ever wonder where a rabbit hole leads? The entrance is this small gaping hole that leads on a seemingly endless trail that has no end. There is also a phrase that is associated with it, called 'Going Down the Rabbit Hole'. In reference to "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland", the main character Alice curiously chases after a well-dressed rabbit with a giant watch into a rabbit hole in order to appease her curiosity, leading to a series of adventures that are described in the book.

These past few weeks, I've gone down a few of my own rabbit holes. Usually, my computer wandering leads me to the realm of gameplay on  Youtube for Fortnite, or I end up reading several articles from HackerNewsLetter or The Hustle, but recently, I've tried to be a bit more explorative with the things I'm learning.

Last week, I got to learn about mental models. They are tools in a toolbox in order to map out understand the world. Mental models are pretty fascinating because they are almost fundamental truths on how to intake information and react to events in life. One mental model I'm still trying to wrap my brain around is inversion. The idea revolves around thinking about the negative things that could happen and avoiding those outcomes. Rather than focusing on how to achieve success, inversion focuses on managing failure. I find inversion hard to follow because many times, I enjoy acting more on impulse rather than through reflection and careful calculation. If you'd like to go down the rabbit hole of mental models, I suggest reading this blog.

Just today, I've learned about civil engineering. Someone I knew got a job to be a staff engineer right in Chicago for a civil engineering company, and I got a glimpse of what it's like to be a civil engineer, and hear on the importance of it for society. Did you know that there is a crazy complexity behind working with construction on highways vs. construction on local roads? The reason is not only because construction on highways can impact the travel in many surrounding areas, but also because there is so much designing and planning civil engineers need to do before executing construction. Rather than thinking short-term, civil engineers have to consider long-term in many sectors: travel, economy, the environment, and many more. The challenge is to create a resilient design that won't need to be changed for hundreds, if not thousands of years because it fits seamlessly well into the society even through change.

As you can tell, these rabbit holes I've gone down are pretty random. Mental models may influence how I live daily, but civil engineering may never touch my life ever again.

I believe, though, that by intentionally going down the rabbit hole, it can help fuel learning and allow for a greater appreciation of life. Sure, it's important to allocate time in order to focus on schoolwork and get the current job done. But having moments set aside in order to be open to learning new things and exploring areas that have never been explored before can refresh your mind from the mundane tasks of every day and allow for a more productive mind when you have to go back to the things you do daily in life.

Greetings y'all, thanks for reading this blog post :)  The year is almost over, and this is considered the busiest time of the semester ._. Keep on pushing through, though, and before you know it, you'll be able to take a break, or at last momentarily pause, in the summer.

Anyways, take care guys. You got this! I"ll see y'all in the next blog post. Ciao!