Construction Curiosities #54
An Astronaut's View of Construction
Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
Hello to all 1100+ subscribers, and a special HELLO to the 40 new folks who joined this week!
Y’all are out of this world!
Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter. Where I use gifs, memes, and horrible dad puns to distract you from the fact you are reading a Construction Newsletter on your weekend.
This weekly Newsletter explores my Curiosities about the Construction Industry. It's meant to make you think, smile, and become a better, more thoughtful Construction Professional.
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Summary
This week we will look at:
One Musing: The Overview Effect
One Article: Construction Robots for Space
One Quote: Lowest Bidder
One Meme: Always has been
One Musing
I first heard of the “The Overview Effect” on a podcast I was listening to last week. For those that don’t know it’s essentially the mind-shift that happens for some astronauts when they see the World as a whole from space. I particularly like this definition from reiki4innerpeace.com:
The Overview Effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface. It refers to the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important, and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this “pale blue dot” becomes both obvious and imperative.
The past year of writing this newsletter and the conversations I’ve had (especially this week’s CM Mentors Podcast) have led me to do a lot of thinking and pondering on the industry. I’ll tell you when you do that you start to develop a similar Overview Effect of the industry as a whole. You see the company and trade lines dissolve and realize we are just a bunch of hard-working people trying our damndest to work together to build something (and make an honest living doing it).
I’ve also recently realized that I’ve had a cognitive shift on more of a project level since I came to the Owner’s Rep side from the Subcontractor side. When you’re on the subcontractor side you are at the bottom of the project hierarchy and in the weeds battling it out on a daily basis to complete your scope on time and within budget. You tend to put your blinders on and it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. It can be hard to be effective and valuable to the whole project team.
As an example, lets imagine you are asking for a change order from the GC. Without a higher-level perspective, you may not understand the GC typically has to then sell it to the Owner’s Rep and Architect, who has to sell it to the Owner for final approval. This simple process understanding may change the way you prepare the document to explain the issue in a different or more detailed manner so it doesn’t get stalled or inappropriately rejected by someone far removed from the weeds of the project.
When you can take a step back out of the weeds and see the whole project unfold from a higher level, it gives you a totally different perspective on things. Both tangible and philosophical things.
I hope by me sharing my perspectives that it keeps helping out the industry in this way. Particularly the subcontractors that are fighting the good fight to be the ones that are actually getting the projects built. While it ultimately takes the full project team, it’s the trades subcontractors that are making the projects a physical reality. Not the Owners, Architects, CMs, or GCs. Those Trade Subcontractors have a special place in my heart for what they go through to get the job done.
If you are a subcontractor and are interested in hearing what I’m working on to support that side shoot me an email. I’d love to bounce a couple of ideas off you.
Email: matt@constructionyeti.com
One Article
The Robotics Company Building Construction Bots for Space
“It’s very difficult for human astronauts to conduct these operations because the lunar surface is very dangerous and it’s so expensive.” Gitai’s robots, he argued, “allow us to conduct these operations without human risk.”
One Quote
Just a little something to keep in mind on your next low-bid project.
One Meme
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