Spent part of Sunday at my mom and dad's house, eating food and cracking wise. Afterwards, I helped Ender with his English homework. Analyzing short stories. A big part of what I did was just finding better resources for him to complete it. He was given a PDF of the story and worksheet that had no text recognition on it. I typed up the questions on a worksheet he could just fill out, and then I found searchable versions of the stories. Much easier to look up specific phrases, or examples. And much easier to quote the dang quotes they ask for. 

Was a good reminder for me. School initially trains us to be workers, not so much thinkers. I get frustrated often by the lack of holistic understanding in processes because I feel instinctively that it's something overlooked by my superiors. Now I understand it's not overlooked; it's sacrificed for efficiency. In a way, as an employee or student, the higher-up is expecting us to figure out and deal with whatever issues arise in meeting the stated goal. If those setting the goals see that they're being met, why worry about how they're met. My real value is being able to perform in less-than-ideal circumstances.

I am problem-solving bot. Beep bop boop.