[mclovinit]

Making a ton of mistakes early in your career, being lucky to work with those that took the time to have constructive discussions/arguments with you (i.e. they're passionate and actually give a crap about budding talent), and paying it forward are a few key things that make for a good engineer.

I've pulled whatever hair out that I have on a Friday night trying to figure out something with a solution or approach unpublished elsewhere when I could be watching Doctor Who or getting fat on fat free ice cream and sedentary on my couch instead. Sometimes spending that personal time experimenting pays dividends in the form of a working solution. Other times it builds grit.