I had a realization very very recently.

This is the sort of thing that can happen only out of the blue when you are thinking about it in hindsight.

I went on a trek with a bunch of friends. It was an organized trek so there was an extended group of people as well. It was super fun. During the trek we came across a small dam (a proper human-made dam will gates to control the flow of water etc etc). For a moment I was transfixed by this seemingly ordinary dam.

I see people walk up to a dog and pet it, or see a cat and walk towards it. For me, I am drawn towards machines, human made "engineering" things. After the trek, when I think about it, I feel the situation is same as that of people and dogs/cats.

I think I should explore this a bit further.

What was my thinking when I saw that dam during the trek ?

I can remember certain details that I noticed.

• The gates were curved and they weren't too wide which means that the dam is not designed to stop a huge flow of water.
• The gates were above water which suggests that this dam was designed on the same lines as some of the dams in Netherlands. This design enables easier maintenance of the gates as their normal resting state is above water.
• There was not water flow indicating that the dam was not operational (maybe)
• I tried to spot any motors nearby which would be the mechanism used to raise/lower the gates. Could not find anything like that, but there were some large manual screws which suggests that maybe this is a manual mechanism.

As any well-read engineer can tell that I am practically speculating right now, I have NO idea even if any of these assumptions are correct about the dam that I saw, but these were going on inside my head at that time. I wasn't stuck on the dam for a long time, maybe I stood there for about a minute, then kept walking.

My point is, this is a pattern that I have failed to observe in myself for a long time (or maybe I did observe but never thought about it actively). I am more interested in how the game engine works than the actual game. I am more interested is how something works than that particular something.

What draws me to these seemingly ordinary pieces of engineering is that I find these marvelous. The sheer amount of complexity that goes into making these is a testament to human cleverness. We have discovered/invented so much; and we have so much more to go.

That is just inspiring. :-)