Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Posted on 13 March 2018 by Wayne Cook

Angela Lee Duckworth was the person who came up with the term Grit after teaching seventh grade math. Her experience was that the students who could grasp the material were the ones who worked hard at understanding the material. IQ, family history, and many other factors did not have nearly as much effect as the passion of the student to understand the material and the perseverance to truly understand what was being taught. Angela Duckworth gave a TED talk that gives a background of how she developed her passion for understanding Grit. As is seen at the end of the following video, understanding Grit and how people develop Grit is only just beginning.

At Colorado Early Colleges in Fort Collins, Michael Brown gives presentations on Grit for this school year. It was when I heard an interview of Angela Duckworth that I developed a better understanding of what Grit meant. The segment of that presentation was her description of the basic training at the Naval Academy for first year cadets.The training for the first year at the Academy is tough. Those that are passionate about their own success (and helping others), and are willing to persevere through the many challenges, are the ones who are the most likely to achieve success at the Academy. The natural talent of a cadet is not as strong of indicator of success as the effort the cadet puts into achieving success. In fact, Angela came up with a formula for achievement:

  • Talent x Effort = Skill
  • Skill x Effort = Achievement

Notice that effort is used twice in the formulas where talent is only used once, and that is at the very beginning of the Achievement process. Our effort is twice as important as our native talents. There are four things we need to do every day to develop our Grit and they are:

  1. Develop a Fascination for what we are learning. Strive to learn more than what the instructor is presenting. My Middle School class showed this when I gave them a simple assignment toward the end of our HTML/CSS/JavaScript module. They went far beyond the assignment and learned how to embed far more into their website than just a simple video.
  2. Daily Improvement gets you where you want to be. How are you going to make yourself better today than you were yesterday?
  3. Greater Purpose is a stronger internal driver for us that our desire for pleasure. When we understand WHY we need to learn a new topic or achieve a desired goal, we can achieve great things. The classic example is of a mother lifting a car off a trapped child when there is no way she could do that without knowing the greater good of saving her child. Another example is of a bricklayer who was building a church. Which is a higher purpose, just laying the bricks or building a lasting monument to God? Which would cause the bricklayer to do the best job possible.
  4. Growth Mindset is essential to reaching the best possible outcome. I love to learn new material. This keeps me young at heart. No one on earth knows everything, even though there were proposals in 1900 to shut down the U>S. Patent Office because everything that will be invented has been invented. Think about all the discoveries since 1900, and compare that to your knowledge. Each of us has the knowledge relative to the people of 1900 America compared to the knowledge and skills we can learn. What is holding us back, how can we eliminate those obstacles and become capable of achieving great outcomes in our lives. My biggest obstacle is my own limitations I place on myself. What are yours? How do you plan to overcome those?

A good description of some of Angela Duckworth’s ideas is explained in the following video:

There was a study done a long time ago about who made the best baseball coaches. Surprisingly, at least at the time, was that the best coaches were the ones who did not have the super talent, they were the ones who had to persevere to achieve any success in professional baseball. They were the ones who had to learn how to become the best player they could be, then were able to share what they learned and how they learned it with other players. As a side note, the greatest learning occurs when you share what you have learned with others. Having to explain what needs to be done to achieve success reinforces what you have learned.

I am from Indiana. I love basketball. I know that is redundant, but it does show one of my passions. I tried out for my high school basketball team, but was not able to make it my freshman year. I worked hard the following year to improve my game. My sophomore year I was one of the last people to be cut. I had improved my game. I then started playing in a church league because I really enjoyed playing. When I taught high school on Guam, I went to play basketball every morning at the high school. The head basketball coach of the Warriors (one of the two teams the high school had) noticed me and asked if I would like to be an assistant coach and coach the JV team. I jumped at the opportunity. The second year I coached, we only lost one game and tied for the league championship. To this day, I know exactly what I needed to do to improve my coaching based on that one loss. We did not lose another game for the rest of the season. In fact there were no really close games after that one loss. But I probably learned more from that one game than any other game. Losses are just learning opportunities. They may hurt when they happen, but we must not give up because of one failure. I know I need to learn from failure and improve. There are enough mistakes to be made, there is no excuse to repeat any one mistake too many times. Learn and grow, never be afraid of pushing the boundaries of comfort in your life.

Grit can be developed. It is not easy, but it can be done. Start with one small idea of how you can improve yourself in one area. Then do it. Be better today than you were yesterday. Help someone else learn what you just learned. Understand the higher purpose in what you are doing today. Then learn and do. As someone I greatly admire once said: Do It! Do It Right! Do It Right Now!

Assignment for My Middle School Class

The assignments are:

  1. Daily: On the top of your assignment, answer the question How am I better today with computers than I was yesterday?
  2. Weekly: On the last day of class each week, answer the following four questions:
    1. How have I improved my understanding of this subject this week?
    2. What have I learned from my Daily Improvements?
    3. What Greater Purpose does what I learned this week have in my life?
    4. How have I grown this week, especially my Mindset?
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“I Am”

Posted on 8 February 2018 by Wayne Cook

I am is the most powerful phrase in the English language. What follows those words determine what thoughts we each have about ourselves. The words following can be derogatory, learning, hopeful, humble, egotistical, or some combination. The choice is ours. For those who are religious, the phrase I Am has special significance. Everything associated with that phrase should always be humble and uplifting and never derogatory. There is an old saying that Your thinking determines who you are. What is your most common sentence starting with I am? How does that sentence make you feel? I know I always have to be realistic. I have many areas in which I have the opportunity to grow. I might say I am learning something new. I am not yet a master of that, but I am working towards that goal. I am developing a plan to be where I want to be in a specified amount of time. We each must decide if we are as happy as we want to be where we are right now. If not, how can we obtain that state in a reasonable amount of time?

Use I Am carefully, You are becoming what you think you are. Use you internal power to be the person you want to be. We each are beings of far more potential than any of us will ever realize. We must be the person that we have the potential of being. Becoming the person we can be attracts the people with whom we want to share our lives. Do It! Do It Right! Do It Right Now!

I Am Changes with Your Stages of Life

How I am is completed will vary at different stages of life. Be comfortable with the stage at which you are located at this time in your life. To be our best, all stages need to be learning and growing stages. Stagnation leads to physical and spiritual death. In this life, none of us alive today will ever reach perfection. But to strive for perfection in areas of our lives is doable, so let us do that to become perfect in particular areas of our lives that are important to us. Remember that we are each a Child of God and God does not make junk. Romans 8:17 states And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. This is an amazing promise. It means that we must humbly respect ourselves and our potentials.

Not Yet Is Essential to Achieving your I Ams

I Am Not Yet leads to I Am, Have you ever wanted to do something and then set out to accomplish that task. It might be something that takes a day or something that takes a lifetime. It is good to have both goals. Often the one day to one week tasks lead to year-long accomplishments which lead to a lifetime of achievement. I am sure that we each can point to events in our life where we have said I am not yet and went to achieve that goal. It may be simple. I remember when my parents bought me a brand new bike and I had not ridden it. They offered to buy me training wheels. My reaction was I am not yet a bicycle rider and I do not want training wheels. Therefore, I borrowed a neighbor’s smaller bicycle and went down to the end of the street to practice riding all day. I fell down a lot. But by the end of the day I could ride a bicycle. I appreciate the power of I am not yet! Another time was coming from a FORTRAN on cards environment arriving at Indiana University for my Masters in Computer Science. On the first day of class (Monday), we were assigned 5 LISP programs to be turned in on Wednesday using a text editor on a computer and turned in using an electronic system. I did not even know how to save a file on the computer, let allone use a recursive language like LISP. My first thought was I am not yet a programmer of LISP programs on a terminal, but I will be by Wednesday. On Wednesday, I turned in the assignments and could say that I am a programmer of simple LISP programs on a terminal. As time progressed at IU, I eventually could say that I am a programmer of complex LISP programs. Notice that I never even mentioned terminals because after a few months that was just a given. We each have our I am not yetgoals that will lead to I am moments. May we each find joy in those moments and celebrate them both by ourselves and with good friends. As we celebrate our own triumphs, may we look to celebrate our friends’ triumphs also.

Conclusion

Life is full of opportunities. Sometimes those may be hidden in challenges, both minor and major. May we each recognize the opportunities that present themselves to us and achieve all of the I am moments that we desire. May each of our lives be filled with the joys that come from humble accomplishment.

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Should I learn how to code or learn another language?

Posted on 3 December 2017 by Wayne Cook

I have been working with software development since I was a junior in high school. I have used at least twenty-five languages for various projects. I can take my coding skills from language to language (at least in groups of languages). What type of development would you like to do? The answer to that question will determine what practices you need to develop for your coding skills. Once you know that, then it is wise to choose a language that will help you develop those skills. Learning how to code goes hand-in-hand with learning a particular language. Unless you want to do legacy programming (FORTRAN, Assembler/Assembly, or COBOL), I would suggest learning structure programming/coding language like C, Algol, Ada, or Pascal. C seems to be the most common language in this group. These languages would be good for learning basic coding skills. For more advanced skills, I would recommend an Object Oriented language. The language with which I started was SmallTalk, which is not that commonly used anymore. Other languages include C++ for a compiled-to-a-specific-architecture language, Java for a language that compiles  to run on a virtual machine, or Python if you want to learn an interpreted language. Java would be good for you to learn coding for mobile phones. If you are doing work on Microsoft platforms, then C# would be the language to use.

If your interests are in web development, then I would recommend a combination of html5, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP (and possibly Python).

Almost a totally different mindset is needed if you plan to do string manipulation and searches. Some of the languages listed above would do well, but there are languages specifically designed for this. Two that I have used are Snobol and Prolog. Prolog (SWI-Prolog) is a much more modern language than Snobol (SNOBOL4 Resources), but both have their place.

As a side note, the language with which I had the most fun was LISP, it has since evolved into Common LISP (Welcome to Common-Lisp.net!). It is just as old of language as FORTRAN and COBOL. but totally different. In fact, it will warp your coding techniques and think in ways that you may never have thought before.

Bottom line, learning good coding techniques and learning a specific language go hand-in-hand. Some basic coding techniques are true no matter what language you are using and will serve you well in all languages. Other coding techniques have developed around a group of languages, like Object Oriented Programming. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

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Do You Really Want to Work for a Large Corporation?

Posted on 24 September 2017 by Wayne Cook

Hewlett-Packard and Tektronix, two companies for whom I have worked, were once garage-shop companies. Most companies start up that way and grow bigger as they reach their goals. The founders of companies care about their companies and the employees, the people who take over leadership after them do not care nearly as much. Under the founders of HP and TEK, there were no lay-offs. In tough times, they found alternate solutions to keep people they hired employed. Howard, Bill, and Dave all felt that if you cared enough to help their company succeed that they would return the favor and care for you when times got tough. This speaks highly of the environment in smaller companies that are growing. The smaller companies with whom I am familiar, also have far less overhead in terms of paperwork and meetings and far more emphasis on getting the work done. If you are familiar with the Scrum Methodology (Scrum Methodology), the philosophy of a good smaller company fits more closely with rapid quality software development. I am not saying that larger companies cannot also develop quality software, it just requires more hurdle jumping. As a side-note, look up Skunk Works for an example of a big company doing just this.

Back to your original question, doing something you love is far more important than working for a large corporation. When choosing a company, choose wisely. Look for a company with either good financing or a great idea than you feel you can substantially contribute to it being successful.

Big companies do not provide the stability they once did (Hewlett Packard Enterprise Is Said to Plan About 5,000 Job Cuts). I was project-lead at Hewlett-Packard when I was asked to put together training for the product development to be shipped to India. A bit later I was a part of the HP Work Force Reduction and given six weeks to find work within the company. At the same time, the CEO put a seven week moratorium on internal hires.

The bottom line is to choose what you want to do, look for a good company who is doing that, and then hone your skills in that area and show the company how you can help them with their success. Good luck.

Posted in Agile Methodology, Attitude, Becoming, Computers, Divergent Thinking, Do, Financial Health, Fulfilling Life, Goals, Mentor, older Americans, Planning, SCRUM, SCRUM Methodology, Self-Worth, Software, Thinking, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

And Grace will Lead Me Home

Posted on 2 September 2017 by Wayne Cook

“Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace that brought me safe so far,
And Grace will lead me home.”

I am celebrating a major anniversary of my time here on earth this month and it has led to much contemplation. Hearing one of my favorite The Piano Guys songs has added to that contemplation. I have had many good friends and a few very close friends over the years. I wonder how each of you are doing. It is hard to believe the amount of time since I was in California, Denmark, Oregon, Guam, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. There are some very special memories I have of each place, but most of them revolve around individuals who were a part of my life. This year I am celebrating 40 years since I graduated from Indiana University. It only took me one year to earn my Masters of Science in Computer Science. That degree allows me to teach at Colorado Early Colleges, jointly with AIMS Community College. It has been a grueling, but enjoyable three weeks. It is good to continue to learn and have the opportunity to share with others. There is so much about which I am thinking (and thankful) at this time and I will be adding to this as the month progresses. I wish each of my friends the very best, whether we are in touch or not. May you be blessed in all that you do.

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Gemba – Designing for the Person – Scrum

Posted on 19 July 2017 by Wayne Cook

Gemba is an interesting process for management introduced by the Japanese. In Japanese, it is often pronounced “Genda” and written 現場. Gemba means “the real place.” Its goal is to see how work is done and tools are used, then designing the tools and work area and process to make it easier to accomplish the task at hand. This is a great concept to help developers using the Scrum/Agile Methodology to develop better designs and implementations. The best example of the use of Gemba is in its use in the medical field presented by Deborah Adler on TEDxRVA.

For Deborah’s work, designing for the individual to solve a specific problem is the key to a great design to solve a common problem for many individuals. Her key phrase is “Don’t create for the world, create for a person.”

Observation, listening, and correctly perceived problem identification is the key to Gemba. This fits very closely to the purpose of Scrum Methodology and specifically two-week Scrum Sprints. Each Sprint needs to have a deliverable. All Shareholders are involved with the initial Working Agreement and the final acceptance of what is produced (or “Done“) in each Sprint. Use these opportunities to create the best product possible. Gemba was developed independently from Scrum, but there are many similarities. Both emphasize streamlining the process as much as possible. Make the product as simple and intuitive to use as possible and remove any unused overhead that hinders the progress of either the developers or users of the product. Gemba is a tool for leaders, managers, and supervisors. A Scrum Master is the facilitator of the Scrum process, and is the leader or go-to person all the members of the team consult on ways to produce a better product more quickly. Scrum Masters would be benefited from understanding Gemba.

A good example of how to implement Gemba was given by Steve Jobs when asked about the detail of the use of Java and the purpose of OpenDocs at Apple. As CEO, Steve Jobs could not know the detail of every project, but must be aware of and set the overall strategy, vision, and mission for Apple. When confronted, he acknowledged that there were valid points to the gentleman’s criticism. Then he adds: “The hardest thing is: How does that fit into a cohesive, larger vision, that’s going to allow you to sell eight billion dollars, 10 billion dollars of product a year? And one of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it.” The whole point of Gemba is to know the customer and the customer needs. How do you solve those needs than not only meets the needs but thrills the customer?

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Do Until You Become

Posted on 15 July 2017 by Wayne Cook

I went to a meeting of TEC-P (Technology Employment in Colorado Partnership) in Denver on Thursday. It was a fascinating meeting that started off with a TED talk on Body Language by Amy Cuddy.

We have viewed Body Language as a way to determine how other people are feeling, but Amy points out that it can be a great influence on how we feel about ourselves. Our body posture and language tells our minds whether we are powerful and in control by being large or submissive and subservient by being small. A classic example of a power position is the Wonder Woman pose. When we are interviewing, we are advised to loosely mirror the interviewer’s posture and enthusiasm. However, it has been shown that too often when the person with whom we are talking takes a power position, we instinctively assume the submissive (small) position. If you watch the embedded video of Amy Cuddy, you will see several examples of this.

In this video, Amy repeats a common phrase that is used quite often, “Fake it until you make it.” She modifies it to “Fake it until you become it.” I would like to make one more modification to this phrase to be “Do it until you become it.” Amy gives an excellent example toward the end of the video about overcoming the effects of a serious car accident where her brain injuries left her with a two standard deviation drop in her IQ. Since she had always been labeled as gifted, this was a devastating setback to her. Amy Cuddy heard from multiple people that she would never finish college. She struggled through undergraduate school, but eventually was accepted to graduate school. She was blessed with an excellent counselor/mentor who made her “fake it” until she believed that she had become the good student she always wanted to be.

We are often called human beings, but I think that we need to change this to state that “We Are Each a Human Becoming.” There is an old saying in business that “If your company is not growing, it is dying.” This applies to each of us as individuals also. When I want to do my best, I ask myself each morning “What will I learn and do today?” The bookend to this is to write down at night a brief summary of What I Have Learned Today. When we are at our best, we are geared to continually learn and do what we learn to become our best selves. Life is too short and we should expect nothing less from ourselves.

Darren Hardy of Success Magazine said on one of his Daily Mentoring videos that we “need to eat the frog first.” I have the most energy in the morning, as most people do. Eating the frog first means to figure out what are the most important tasks that we need to do today and understand the reason Why those tasks are the most important. Then plan out our day and do the most difficult task first. As we do this, we will gain more confidence in ourselves and we will present a more positive and powerful countenance in our daily lives and interactions with other people.

We each go through tough times in our lives. There can be many causes for these times. What we do during the hard times says volumes about who we are and how we overcome difficulty. Starting every day with some basic exercises, including practicing power postures, is a good way to have your body and mind performing at peak efficiency. For me, I really like the “Wonder Woman” pose. Also, be sure to read something uplifting. For example, read something by your favorite motivational speaker or a section of your favorite Scriptures. I enjoy doing the latter as well as listening to a Daily Motivation by Darren Hardy.

Organize and Build Your Confidence

Amy Cuddy paractices Wonder Woman pose

Superman Power Pose

Practice power positions, especially before going into a stressful situation. Power Positions increase your confidence and decrease you stress levels. Super heroes can be a good role model, if chosen wisely. Look at Amy Cuddy imitating Wonder Woman. Then compare her pose to Superman’s power pose. This can work for each of us also. Be honest with yourself, how do you feel after holding this position for 5 minutes. The video above refers to an experiment done with half the candidates taking a power position and half not. There was a very strong corrolation between those who took the power pose and those who did well on the interview.

 

Conclusion

We each need to grow daily. Start the day off with confidence. Organize the week before it starts. Organize the day the night before. Improve each day by learning something new and doing it. Practice each day on something that is important until the desired mastery level is reached. Then we need to evaluate what we are doing and modify our tasks where needed to prioritize what we need to do to become closer to the person we want to be. Always remember to “Do until you Become.”

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S.T.E.M. is now becoming S.T.E.A.M.

Posted on 29 June 2017 by Wayne Cook

S.T.E.M. was originally designed to help young women understand and enter the technical fields. S.T.E.M. stands for Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics. It has been very successful by most measures.  In fact, there are various lists of essential reading for women in S.T.E.M. However, there are many people (including myself) who believe there are two missing elements to S.T.E.M. Most of my friends who are successful in the technical fields say that the Arts (Music, painting, photography, etc.) play an important piece to their understanding of the beauty of elegant technical designs. S.T.E.A.M. is becoming the more accepted term used through adding Art to the technical areas listed. The United States has led the world in technical development for several generations, but we are slowly losing that status for various reasons. The program’s aim was to produce more female graduates in the technical fields. This is great, but in my own humble opinion this is leaving out half of our population. Young men need to excel in the technical fields just as much as young women need to succeed. I believe that in adding Art to the technical education and making sure all youth have an equal opportunity to excel will give our youth and our country a brighter future.

Please study the many reasons it is important to transform STEM to STEAM. Also, the education system needs passionate teachers, not just teachers who can recite the facts. To succeed in Science-Technology-Engineering-Art-Mathematics, the students need to understand the “Why” behind the “What” and “How”, not just the “boring” facts. The best teachers are the ones who have developed a passion for these fields and can share that passion with their students. Older workers have worked with technology for many decades and have learned to adapt to the many changes in these fields. Unfortunately, many companies believe that younger workers can adapt to new technologies more quickly (and are much cheaper to hire). This is a false economy, but leaves many very capable people available to help the next generation adapt to the rapidly changing future. Simon Sinek  gave an excellent TED talk on “How great leaders inspire action” that shows the importance of passion and understanding the why behind any decision or cause.

Dreams and Plans

Anyone can understand the What and How portion of development. In fact, there are so many ways to accomplish tasks that being too concerned about the How to do something may mask your understanding of Why you want to complete that task or project. The How and the accompanying tools will logically flow from the Why you want to accomplish a particular goal. This is one reason why Agile Development (Scrum Methodology) has been so successful. It forces people to think about Why they want to achieve a particular goal. The How to do particular tasks logically fall out of understanding the Why the project is important and how a particular task fits into the entire design.

An excellent example the importance of Why over How or What is Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King had a “Dream” while many of the other Civil Rights leaders had their plans. Plans are great and are eventually always necessary, but it was Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech that inspired a generation to support the Civil Rights movement.

Learning technology is not hard, there will be challenging projects and difficult assignments. However, most people can learn any concept and technology. Teaching the facts and concepts of Science-Technology-Engineering-Art-Mathematics can succeed as long as the students truly understand the Why behind the use of the technologies and the Why behind what they are trying to create. Get all youth involved and use all the resources available to teach the technology and the passion behind the use of the technology to provide a better world for all of us who live here on Earth.

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The Kindness Diaries

Posted on 3 April 2017 by Wayne Cook

Dustin Clutterbuck, a massage graduate from IBMC College, has been communicating with Steven Steele, the CEO of IBMC College to bring Leon Logothetis of the Kindness Diaries to the College to present a talk on his experience with the kindness of others.  Leon is a very kind and thoughtful person. He treated each person he met with love and respect. I was especially grateful for how he treated my son, Matthew. I will have Matthew write more about the presentation. For now, I am uploading photos to share with people who were there.

Matthew’s Thoughts

Getting to meet and speak to Leon was amazing.

Getting to hear the stories, hearing just how much the world can change with kindness and that kindness is really out there, not like the cynics say, but real honest goodness that is there because folks want it.

Folks need that connection, where a heart touches a heart, where a person is seen, feels like yes, I am a human being and I am here, and you see me.

IT was a powerful meeting, and I am humbled and honored I was able to be in the audience to listen. To hear his words and experiences and realizing I wish to commit to being a better person.

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The Kindness Diaries Cover


Slide 1 of 31
 
  • The face behind the scenes who helps everything go.
  • The author and me
  • Had to include this one just for the look of joy.
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Are all Experienced Engineers Rude and New Engineers Obnoxious

Posted on 27 March 2017 by Wayne Cook

This was written in response on Quora asking if all experienced engineers rude. In many respects, it is written as a letter to new engineers just coming out of school.

I have been producing software for many years. Most new and experienced programmers get along fine and learn from each other. There are different reasons why either group is rude to the other. I will group newbies into two groups, those who think they know it all and those who realize they do not. The experienced engineers can be broken into two groups also, the hoarders and the sharers.

For experienced engineers the hoarders are rude to everyone, they either hide as much information from others (who are either colleagues or below them in the hierarchy) as possible or give misinformation. They have put themselves into positions where their knowledge is critical to the organization’s success. In the short term, they can be very successful, but when technologies change they can find themselves in some difficulties. The sharers are the best people for newbies to get to know. The ones I know keep up with technology and freely share what they know until someone does something that may not seem totally ethical. Smart managers try to keep as many sharers as possible around, especially to train the new members of the team.

For newbies, I have had to deal with both the know-it-alls and the learners. The two toughest groups I had to deal with are the know-it-alls who really did not have the needed skills to do their job and the learners who were not able to learn what their job was and how to best do it. The know-it-alls who really did know their software development were obnoxious at first, and I was probably a bit rude to them. However, to be a true know-it-all they had to have a love for learning and would eventually know that other people can help them become better at their software development skills. These people, as long as they become sharers, usually became vital members of the team. The learners who had the fundamentals down, usually learned quickly and were willing to share their knowledge with others. These engineers also became vital members of our team.

For the teams on which I worked, the fastest way to be accepted by the experienced engineers is to both listen and contribute. You have learned some new techniques and concepts, look for ways they can contribute to the project. If your thesis was something that could help, have an informal presentation to those who would be interested.  Be involved in the code reviews of more experienced engineers code, you probably will learn many important concepts that were not taught in school but is only learned in industry. You may also be able to share some techniques that you did learn in school that would be helpful to the project. Work on overcoming stereotypes. Not all experienced engineers are rude, just like most newbies are not obnoxious. If we are on the same team, we need to work together to produce the best products we can.

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