Two nights ago, Kaoz561 and I decided to jump back into Xbox Live after a streaming session. Since the new season just recently dropped, we settled on Destiny 2, and like most of our nights after work, our gaming session turned into a debate— Nothing new here, folks!
In all the years of our friendship, we've never shied away from passionate conversations, and despite my tendency to interrupt him more than he interrupts me (what? They're called "passionate" for a reason!), we've found that we typically agree 50% of the time.
Thanks to these heated online debates, we have gathered enough data to understand who is “the engineer” and who is “the technician” in this brotherhood.
Kaoz561 is a man who believes thoughts, ideas, and the five senses can be broken into systems that work symbiotically to give us the answers we are ultimately looking for. He's also likely to initiate almost every conversation with a firm "It's as simple as me saying…"
Meanwhile, I am an unapologetic and blunt technician, which happens to align with my current daytime career path.
I am a baseline manic idealist who believes my words to be prophetic and "trendsetting" in nature. Due to my tendency to generate what psychology often defines as a "flight of ideas," I’ve been known to neglect the empathetic side of myself. When thinking quickly, I often express that whether people like my ideas is not my problem, as I will still push forward with them.
After my fourth inpatient psych admission, Kaoz561 picked me up from the hospital. Our conversation took a turn on our ride to his house, leading to him saying something to the effect of "We are each other's Batman and Joker. Want to guess who the Joker is in this friendship?"
I couldn't help but agree with him.
Fast forward to a few nights ago, we revisited this statement, but this time, with new insight. With #chatgpt open on my laptop, I posed the following question:
What can you make out of someone who is manic trying to understand the mind of an engineer?
ChatGPT Answer #1
“In this collaboration of contrasts, the manic explorer yearns to traverse the pathways of engineering logic, hoping to grasp the architect's blueprint of structured creativity. Yet, like a comet darting through the night sky, the manic mind's intensity can illuminate even the most hidden corners of an engineer's imagination, revealing patterns and connections that might otherwise remain undiscovered.
Imagine these two minds, one aglow with the fire of boundless energy, the other tempered by the measured cadence of logic, engaging in a dance of mutual curiosity. It's a dance where chaos and order intertwine, creating a unique symphony of understanding that echoes with the melodies of possibility and innovation."
Kaoz561 and I grew up roaming and playing sports in the streets, but we learned how to lead together during our time in NJROTC, where we both climbed the ranks from enlisted cadet to cadet staff officers.
Back in NJROTC, Kaoz561 kept his head down, his ears on the ground, and his eyes on my back. I got things done before deadlines and kept the cadets trained. While he was busy looking down at the gears of the engine in the back of the ship, I was at the helm searching for ways to improve the cadets' lives and make training fun. From my position, I also oversaw inventory, logistical, and admin needs.
In the analogy of the ship, the engineer’s leadership is just as important as the leadership of the captain at the helm, because without a running engine, we would never have gotten anywhere.
Without the captain at the helm, we wouldn't have had a mission or destination.
Without our team, we would have never accomplished our goals.
During our junior year, we managed to work ourselves to the positions of supply officer (Kaoz561) and admin officer (myself). The following year, we were both promoted to Cadet Executive Officer and Cadet Commanding Officer and during our senior year, with the help and effort of the cadets and the leadership team, we earned our high school the 2010 Northeast Region Unit Achievement Award as well as several competition trophies.
We weren't born leaders, but each one of us has had to walk the paths that led us to become better men. We will always be students of the game, but by leading our own lives, we can identify each other's positive qualities, call each other out on our negative ones, and help one another continue to improve and construct strong foundations. Although physical distance plays a factor now, we can still communicate, role-play scenarios, maintain our friendship, and build a state-of-the-art gaming tech company via today's video games, audio, and visual technologies.
Shout out to our leaders at the time, Retired USN CMDR Gunning and Retired USCG Chief Petty Officer Delucia. They saw how Kaoz561 and I operated together, and we will forever be grateful for how they showed us how to balance our negative and positive traits to help prioritize the cadets and our missions.
As always, if you stuck it around until the end, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for doing so. We hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it, and we hope that you were able to gain a new perspective or maybe even see yourself in some of our experiences.
Much Love, Keep Rocking, and Carry On!
Ramb0561
InterstellarGaming.Co