The Radio
Today, once again, I got up early, around 5:30 a.m. I had a shower and got straight to work. My goal for today was to get as much client work done by 10:00 am, do a workout, and start working on interfacing the radio module. I had a bit of pending client work, so I tried to get as much done. At 10:00 a.m, it was a hard stop. This meant, even though I did not complete the client work, I had to stop working on it. I cannot allow client/ ANTSAND work to bleed into my Fridays - Sundays. These days are reserved only for ANTSHIV Robotics.
Interfacing with the radio got me right into embedded systems. I have not worked on this stuff for almost 6-7 years. I was very rusty. Eventually, I got the Arduino to talk to the radio that I had designed. I designed the PCB, bought all the components, and soldered it to the PCB. The electronic components were placed on the PCB using surface mounting. I have never tested if the radio worked or not. I had designed this almost 6-7 years ago. Today, I finally got down to testing. For now, the interfacing works. I have still not tested sending data over the air. For that, I will need to sit and solder down another radio module. I would then have two radios. One of them will be on the quadcopter and the other to control it.
Why did I take 6-7 years to test this out?
The answer to this question is probably the reason what is hindering my success. I don't know the answer. But I do have a few theories. One being, I was just scared to test it out. Two, the work required to get it working is tedious. It is easy to procrastinate. Three, I never made it my highest priority. Most of the success is to prioritize your task, and this was never part of my todo list. Nevertheless, now is the time to get everything off the ground.
Why do I believe ANTSHIV has a better chance of succeeding than ANTSAND?
Over the next few months, I will be focusing more on ANTSHIV Robotics and will be slowing down my work on ANTSAND. The reason being now is the right time to get into robotics. The software technology is maturing, the hardware capabilities are improving, and there are more practical applications. Even a few years ago, most of the drones were very toy-like. You needed a human controller, and it takes a while to get used to controlling these robots. Ideally, these robots need to be autonomous. Only then will the power of a robot shines. Making drones fully autonomous is challenging. This is also why working on Robotics has a better chance of succeeding. Less competition but powerful applications and a lot more business use-cases.
Two, the website design development/tools market is getting overly saturated. Though ANTSAND does take a different approach to web development and design, the results are no different than what WordPress or Wix or Squarespace can do. For practical purposes, people only care about the results. Websites made from ANTSAND may be incrementally better than the rest. For ANTSAND to succeed, it needs to be 10x times better than what is out there. And I don't think any such product in this space is suddenly going to be 10x better.
Having ANTSAND as an inhouse tool makes more sense. It can be used to create websites and marketing assets for ANTSHIV and perhaps a future vertical farm company I would like to start.
But ANTSHIV Robotics is cutting edge technology. It can either end up being a huge success or a hard failure. Robotics are expensive because the hardware is expensive. It is important to get all the software and simulations working first. In the end, you still need to build the hardware. The goal is to minimize blow-up or break apart. Such failures will cost a lot of $$, and you want to minimize it. If ANTSHIV does not innovate quickly, it will die. ANTSHIV robotics must keep creating products while innovating at an unprecedented pace. Most likely, the 1st few products will cater to either the police or fire department. We want ANTSHIV Robotics to be in the hands of first responders. It is this market ANTSHIV Robotics will be first targetting.
Anyway, so what did I do well today?
I got up early
I exercised
I worked on client work and stopped at 10:00~10:30am. The stop is an achievement. Easy to keep continuing to do easy work.
I got going on getting the radio work started.
I am writing my daily blog/ reflection.
What could I improve?
The deep focus has a shell life. For me, it can be anywhere from 3-5 hours. I want to expand this to 8 hours.
I feel restless in the afternoon. I want to figure out a way to take a break and get back right to work.
To succeed in making two companies work is challenging. I would need to spend long hours working on cognitively demanding tasks. Both companies are cognitively demanding, and I like it that way. The goal is to increase my daily cognitive power and stamina.
How to improve my cognitive stamina?
One way to do it is to eat regularly. Like eat almonds, dates, drink water, eat fruits.
Take 5-10 min breaks every hour or so.
Drink a lot of water
Keep a time log
Write pseudo code
Take a quick power nap.
The goal is to set targets and get those targets done every day. Small or big, get it done.
Interfacing with the radio got me right into embedded systems. I have not worked on this stuff for almost 6-7 years. I was very rusty. Eventually, I got the Arduino to talk to the radio that I had designed. I designed the PCB, bought all the components, and soldered it to the PCB. The electronic components were placed on the PCB using surface mounting. I have never tested if the radio worked or not. I had designed this almost 6-7 years ago. Today, I finally got down to testing. For now, the interfacing works. I have still not tested sending data over the air. For that, I will need to sit and solder down another radio module. I would then have two radios. One of them will be on the quadcopter and the other to control it.
Why did I take 6-7 years to test this out?
The answer to this question is probably the reason what is hindering my success. I don't know the answer. But I do have a few theories. One being, I was just scared to test it out. Two, the work required to get it working is tedious. It is easy to procrastinate. Three, I never made it my highest priority. Most of the success is to prioritize your task, and this was never part of my todo list. Nevertheless, now is the time to get everything off the ground.
Why do I believe ANTSHIV has a better chance of succeeding than ANTSAND?
Over the next few months, I will be focusing more on ANTSHIV Robotics and will be slowing down my work on ANTSAND. The reason being now is the right time to get into robotics. The software technology is maturing, the hardware capabilities are improving, and there are more practical applications. Even a few years ago, most of the drones were very toy-like. You needed a human controller, and it takes a while to get used to controlling these robots. Ideally, these robots need to be autonomous. Only then will the power of a robot shines. Making drones fully autonomous is challenging. This is also why working on Robotics has a better chance of succeeding. Less competition but powerful applications and a lot more business use-cases.
Two, the website design development/tools market is getting overly saturated. Though ANTSAND does take a different approach to web development and design, the results are no different than what WordPress or Wix or Squarespace can do. For practical purposes, people only care about the results. Websites made from ANTSAND may be incrementally better than the rest. For ANTSAND to succeed, it needs to be 10x times better than what is out there. And I don't think any such product in this space is suddenly going to be 10x better.
Having ANTSAND as an inhouse tool makes more sense. It can be used to create websites and marketing assets for ANTSHIV and perhaps a future vertical farm company I would like to start.
But ANTSHIV Robotics is cutting edge technology. It can either end up being a huge success or a hard failure. Robotics are expensive because the hardware is expensive. It is important to get all the software and simulations working first. In the end, you still need to build the hardware. The goal is to minimize blow-up or break apart. Such failures will cost a lot of $$, and you want to minimize it. If ANTSHIV does not innovate quickly, it will die. ANTSHIV robotics must keep creating products while innovating at an unprecedented pace. Most likely, the 1st few products will cater to either the police or fire department. We want ANTSHIV Robotics to be in the hands of first responders. It is this market ANTSHIV Robotics will be first targetting.
Anyway, so what did I do well today?
I got up early
I exercised
I worked on client work and stopped at 10:00~10:30am. The stop is an achievement. Easy to keep continuing to do easy work.
I got going on getting the radio work started.
I am writing my daily blog/ reflection.
What could I improve?
The deep focus has a shell life. For me, it can be anywhere from 3-5 hours. I want to expand this to 8 hours.
I feel restless in the afternoon. I want to figure out a way to take a break and get back right to work.
To succeed in making two companies work is challenging. I would need to spend long hours working on cognitively demanding tasks. Both companies are cognitively demanding, and I like it that way. The goal is to increase my daily cognitive power and stamina.
How to improve my cognitive stamina?
One way to do it is to eat regularly. Like eat almonds, dates, drink water, eat fruits.
Take 5-10 min breaks every hour or so.
Drink a lot of water
Keep a time log
Write pseudo code
Take a quick power nap.
The goal is to set targets and get those targets done every day. Small or big, get it done.
The Blog of Anthony Shivakumar
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