Day 3
This place is the real deal
June 4, 2025
I had my first day of my internship today. Everything has surpassed my wildest expectations. I suppose I should actually explain what I’m even working on. One of the projects under the umbrella of Good Machine is Reefgen. They are building an underwater vehicle that will replant and restore seagrass and coral in the oceans.
I have been impressed by how focused the team and project is. Every design decision and test felt consequential. Every second counts because the runway is finite, stakeholders want results, and things are behind schedule (when are they not lol). I was surprised how similar my experience with the NASA BIG Idea Challenge was in that respect. While time might be lacking, you sure won’t be wishing for more engineering dilemmas.
One thing that surprised me was how… normal the engineering process felt. I say normal because it lines up with my own experience working on projects: a path filled with failed prototypes and blood, sweat, and trial and error. I think one of the difficulties with building anything from scratch is sometimes you don’t even know what the right tool to use for the job. Or at least that’s how I feel as a novice. I am generally a bit more adverse to risk than is probably good for me. I like to “get things right” the first time. It’s not my initial instinct to try and create a hack to see if it will get the job done. But this is something I will hopefully get over as I mature.
Despite the air of urgency, I still felt welcomed. Everyone has been happy to provide me opportunities to get my hands dirty. On my first day I got to test the seagrass delivery system in a giant tub of water. Testing things in a lab sure beats coding in a windowless cubicle.
I appreciate how technically sound their approach was. The classic trap is to develop a solution to a problem that doesn’t actually exist. And especially when it comes to global issues things tend to get boiled down in a manner so that they’re technologically feasible, but not really all that useful. Global issues are often human problems, not technology problems. This is why I was happy to see that one of the co-founders is a marine biologist who themselves has hand-restored regions of the ocean.
It is fascinating being able to learn from people so experienced in the art of building. I have never felt like I had a model for what proper engineering looks like. Coming from the NASA Challenge, I only knew how things can disastrously blow up. And while certain things are rough on the edges, as is probably the case for any company and startup, I saw great work being done. There is a lot for me to learn and I couldn’t be more excited.
I want to share my bike ride to work. There are some stunning views. It’s like biking inside a picture.
I am also in love with the bike paths in San Francisco. It is just amazing that I can get around without a car. And I love how it is normalized to bike around the city.
My goals for tomorrow are to hit the calisthenics gyms again after work and catch up with a good friend online. And keep the writing streak going.