A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor
This is inspiring, and let&#x27;s look at why so many of us have the impulse to figure out what the flaw or missing part of the story is.<p>For me, it&#x27;s because I hadn&#x27;t done something so cool at 17. That makes me think, huh, I wonder if I&#x27;m not a &quot;natural born engineer&quot;. I start going through my life story so far and beating myself up for playing too many video games, or not going deep enough on my interests.<p>Then I start thinking about the ways my life is different from his. I start to feel resentment about the opportunities I didn&#x27;t have, the resources that weren&#x27;t available. What could I have done if things had been different?<p>Next I start to resent how society scores us on things that can contribute to the economy, or things that look particularly cool, and things that we accomplished at a young age.<p>And then I start to imagine the difficulties that this young inventor will have. &quot;Oh yes&quot;, I think, &quot;He&#x27;ll find out soon enough what the REAL world is like.&quot;<p>And these thoughts are not who I want to be. But I can reflect and learn something about myself from them. And I can choose to go another way.<p>I can decide that, if a 17 year old kid with the right resources and a crazy idea can make something really cool, then I, as an adult with more experience and resources can make something at least as cool if I want to. And I&#x27;m going to. It&#x27;s not like my life is over because I&#x27;m older than 17.<p>And if this article is making you spiral with insecurity, I hope you make a similar decision. A decision to be inspired instead of intimidated.