learning how to learn

i love to bring fresh perspectives into my books by applying knowledge and experience from many different disciplines, as well as from “real world” experiences. although i’m now a professor of engineering, i’ve also worked in lots of different places and doing very different things: serving as a russian translator on soviet trawlers up in the bering sea, teaching in china, going from us army private to regular army captain, and working as a radio operator at the south pole station in the antarctic.