Introductions

Welcome to Threading Water, a blog about swimming, engineering, and the surprising intersections I’ve found between them. I’ll cover topics including but not limited to: competitive swimming, my experience in the aerospace industry, and the lessons I’ve learned in both of them. Most of the statements and examples in these posts will be purely anecdotal, but I’ll reference sources whenever possible. Most posts involving training techniques or mentality will be about swimming but can be applied to any sport or craft someone is trying to master.

The blog has multiple goals:

First, I want to share the thoughts in my head rather than leave them internalized. I’ve found out that keeping ideas to yourself, even if you think they’re not great in the moment, can actually lead to missed opportunities, slower progress, and suboptimal solutions to problems you’re encountering. This blog is an attempt to change that personal policy I’ve found myself following for too long.

Second, I believe that my background in swimming and engineering has provided me with unique blend of insights. The overlap of highly competitive swimmers and passionate engineers is (unsurprisingly) not very large, yet I find myself applying ideas I learned in one domain to other all the time.

Finally, I want to help people think in different ways. I spent this past winter volunteering as a teacher for high school students, and the satisfaction I felt when I saw a student gain an understanding of concept by approaching it in a new way was amazing. If even just one person were to read these posts and learn something valuable, I would consider that an overwhelming success.

My hope is that someone somewhere will be able to take away something from these posts. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to reach out by email or any of the social sites listed in the about page.