Most years the “year in review post” seems like a good time for a lighthearted review of what has been and what is to come; with the events of this year some amount of gravity seems in order.
A safety critical life
With one of my my earliest mentee I described the job of an engineer as “trying to find the minimum in Murphy’s equation and its first derivative.”; that is to say, design for the best outcomes and protect against the worst. The blog posts this year have focused heavily on Verification and Validation methodologies (finding the minimum) and writing requirements (protecting against the worst). It is easy to see the parallels between these tasks for Model-Based Design and for life during Covid times.
The pendulum swings
With the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines there is an understandable desire to “go back to normal”; in fact some studies suggest that post events we will swing in the opposite direction; depending on how you look at it, this could be seen as embracing life or throwing caution to the wind. They key as I see it is to embrace life while remembering the lessons learned as the pendulum will swing back.
Looking forward 2021
If hindsight is 20/20, and yes I have been waiting all year to make that joke, as a ratio (20/21; 20/22;…20/99) our view into the future is less clear. In 2021 this blog will be moving to a bi-weekly update (Tuesday / Thursday) and I will be writing more “multi-part” posts to go into greater depth on topics of interest.
I want to wish everyone a safe and happy 2021; I look forward to your comments in the coming year.
Michael