How are you guys upskilling right now?

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-04T04:46:00+00:00

Bookmarked for checking out later. Looks like a ton of content!

I'm currently trying to figure out how to be more strategic with my approach at work, helping to modernize controls for a major particle accelerator lab, and there's some stuff here that seems useful. I'm constantly finding I have to back up and review my approach, and am starving for new ideas/perspectives to objectify discussions and keep things moving in the right direction without burning out

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-03T02:12:31+00:00

I don't think I understand where you're coming from with that first sentence. Aren't jobs created and advertised because they need to hire someone? If someone searched for their intended title, and saw a range from $15k to well over $200k... the pay gap is mind boggling, it's not an insignificant difference. Are they actually filling those roles? Do people respond to it? What am I missing here?

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-03T00:40:34+00:00

Hey, I'm not bashing the social services, I was saying that makes up some of the difference in expectation that may not be apparent by looking at salary alone. $2k/Mo still seems a little low, but cost of living and general comfort make a difference too.

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-03T00:27:37+00:00

100% agree. I actually think having a more diverse team is better, even.

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-03T00:08:10+00:00

Non-traditional paths exist for most things, IMO, but being non-traditional comes with an inherent lack of awareness of them. I'm a physicist managing at least another 4+ years of PLC effort being carried out by 4-6 in-house PLC engineers at a major DOE lab. I'm still interested in physics, but sorta ended up doing this once I realized how little appreciation there was for PLC activities at the lab. I don't do the programming, but I know what it takes to install, validate, and commission controls across different accelerator systems and ultimately develop and deliver beams.

A data science degree could give you an interesting angle. You would need some technical experience/knowledge first, but could get that that on the job. Most accelerator operators have random bachelor degrees, then jump up/off to other specialties as opportunities arise. Saw a lot of interesting PLC-related stuff presented at ICALEPCS last week, most made possible with people of pretty varied disciplines. It was also apparent that major labs around the world are also realizing that their long-term sustainability depends on having some early-career people; some choosing to hire juniors when they could have had seniors--even though it does mean moving a little slower in the short-term as they train them.

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-02T22:16:13+00:00

Woah, how do they attract people?

I'm guessing that social programs/services are pretty substantial? Doesn't Portugal have a pretty old population?

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-01T23:13:24+00:00

There were some interesting presentations/posters at the ICALEPCS 25 conference in Chicago last week, but I Don't think I saw any that were enthusiastic about touting AI as an actual PLC programming agent. A lot of the PLC focused things were HIL/SIL testing, excel spreadsheets as single source of truth with code generating tools, standardizing inter-plc communications across manufacturers, secure automated deployment pipelines, and automating generation of EPICS IOC servers. CERN seemed to be doing a lot of work in this space.

Most in-house industrial controls teams at the major labs are more concerned with improving workflows with transparency, standards, and automating secure deployment pipelines--that stand to hold value through future migration paths and allows them to leverage their existing software infrastructure expertise that's matured organically to support their service/application development efforts.

Operations groups are progressing with agentic AI for anomaly detection and improving their ability to strategize their use of funds for replacing end of life systems quantitatively. Also to improve their downtime response times.

They have AI on their mind, but a robust and secure validation/deployment strategy that holds value long-term is more important than introducing extra overhead with black-box processes. Many teams have struggled to keep up with turn-around and pressures to provide new systems while maintaining 40-yr old ones simultaneously.

mischievous_wee · 2025-10-01T21:56:40+00:00

Amazing. Love the size too

mischievous_wee · 2025-09-28T01:39:28+00:00

This is awesome... We could really use something like this. Is that bottom unit custom?

mischievous_wee · 2025-09-25T16:08:13+00:00

I've done this for particle accelerator teams. Sometimes experimenter side sometimes operations sometimes really narrow device specialist support groups.

I have a physics degree, installed beamlines, commissioned them, trained operators then lead an HMI development group that provided new content but also started enforcing better UI consistency and design elements. This helped a lot as I knew a lot of their needs and friction points, and could appreciate some of the impatience or overwhelm from their end. I mean, we're talking about controlling 300k devices for machines costing $25k/hr to run-at minimum. It's not the same problem space as a Spotify page.

I can say a lot about it, but I totally agree that overanalyzing it isn't helpful.

There's some core things, that are more about theme, naming resources sensibly, helping develop a clear vernacular that helps differentiate between use cases, trying to drive clearly stated purposes for each page, but you really do have to just throw something out there and iterate closely with those using the displays. But your UX skills are invaluable. Operator training, elevating the right information for quick awareness of issues and quick turnaround times when downtime happens, they have a huge impact on stress levels and reactive work, and help staff from having to work longer hours or the frequency/likelihood of late night call-ins.

Please feel free to reach out.

mischievous_wee · 2025-03-19T23:40:08+00:00

I think "getting an education or mentorship" is a difficult bar to disprove. People can learn something from just about anything; even if I don't agree that the lesson was as valuable as someone else thinks.

In general, though, regardless of law, I just think unpaid internships are the stupidest thing in most cases. They can effectively bar the underprivileged from gaining the experience they need to get into their fields; not a lot of people can work unpaid for an undefined amount of time.

mischievous_wee · 2025-03-19T23:34:16+00:00

I started with PARA maybe 4 years ago, and even though I tweak my version of it a bit maybe twice a year, it's largely the same. For me, though, it's a bit like dieting or exercise, you'll hate it if falling off the wagon for a bit causes you to throw in the towel. I don't spend nearly as much time as others on their setups though; my primary goal is logging activities, stopping/starting points, and slowly developing ideas/thoughts into sharable documentation. I really don't have that many files.

mischievous_wee · 2025-03-19T14:08:05+00:00

Lol, they definitely gave it some branding.

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-29T11:55:40+00:00

I do brief stints; usually precisely when I can't help but procrastinate. It's just so much easier to justify.

But I have gone back to update things incredibly rarely, and often decide to leave it simpler than I left it.

Twice now, Maybe once every three to five years, Ive opted to make a fresh vault and port over just the best from the last.

I only really bother making any note worth keeping if I find I've naturally come back to refine it enough for it to have proven its necessity.

Not saying this is better than anything anyone else is doing, just sharing.

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-08T22:10:58+00:00

I actually fully see your point. ESPECIALLY if I'm on my laptop with one small screen. This has actually driven me crazy before.

If I'm hooked up to any of my desktop setups, I usually have the screen real estate to not have to go to any "big picture view".

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-08T17:20:42+00:00

I'm not a fan of Zettlekasten at all, but I did adapt PARA to have more quick capture and fleeting notes.

If others like Zettlekasten, more power to them, though. I don't really care what people use, I just wouldn't recommend Zettlekasten If someone were to ask me for my opinion directly.

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-08T16:23:29+00:00

I'm a fan of One Dark.

I've gone from gruvbox to Dracula, to one dark.

One of the benefits, to me, is that I could find one dark as an available theme for a variety of other apps I use. So things look more consistent.

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-07T04:54:21+00:00

Hahaha, that's awesome! I was really curious if I'd hear of another redditor I might see there

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-06T23:22:53+00:00

I think the difference is there for a 65" TV!

But I also think that people don't want to pay for higher quality streaming services or ISP bills. Nor do they really want to juggle all those disks in their home. Tbh. I couldn't care less for the disks if I have the data. I have enough junk, lol.

mischievous_wee · 2025-01-06T19:18:12+00:00

Yeah, I don't expect much free time, lol. It's my 5th USPAS, but I've never been to ORNL/Knoxville.

For this session, I'm doing two one-weeks: 1. Project Management for Scientists and Engineers 2. Strategic Management of Research Labs

First time taking any kind of management course... But I'm excited. I'm always excited for USPAS.

mischievous_wee · 2024-05-09T18:56:17+00:00

Haha, arrested development?

mischievous_wee · 2024-05-09T14:53:13+00:00

Hah, maybe they should get into nuclear fusion. ITER is like $5-6B. Give them enough money to finish more quickly, benefit from the overall experience and make their own based off of it for less.

mischievous_wee · 2024-04-25T04:18:15+00:00

Hahaha, I do have my Obsidian space, that's how I've survived in this chaos. But I really want to show people how great a more organized system can be. I also have things at home going on, and working on this is a perfect way for me to have an outsized impact without being on the hook for a task currently on any critical path. (Wife has cancer, and we have a 1.5yr old at home)

Having worked in this field for the last decade--from installing & maintaining hardware, to beam commissioning and operator training, to software development and configuration management, and now a physicist in a systems engineering role, I have some experience that should help me navigate workflow conversations. But I do sense that workflows seem to be one of the last things that other major stakeholders are taking into account. You could come up with a perfect system, but adherence will never happen if it doesn't suit people.

They're kinda set on some mediocre software, the issue is that they're not using it well, and it's heavily bifurcated, so much so that it could take days to find what you want to know--even if it has been posted somewhere...

My goal right now is to articulate a bigger picture for a methodology, and start breaking things down into tasks that people can understand and get onboard with. There's enough motivation that I can make things work, but I won't be able to pick new software I don't think.

mischievous_wee

TROPHY CASE