Effortless Perfection

Welcome to Episode 002 – Effortless Perfection, where we hear perspectives from professors and students about what effortless perfection is, whether it exists at Duke, and how to navigate this landscape that may be unfamiliar for many. We also explore the differences in perspectives between freshmen and seniors when it comes to this important topic.

Episode Contributors

This weeks episode of This Engineering Life featured a well known professor and an assortment of Freshmen and Senior Pratt Stars:

Dr. Bridgette Martin Hard – Associate Professor of the Practice of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of Undergraduate Studies

Dr. Bridgette Martin Hard speaks at length about what effortless perfection is, and what it means specifically here at Duke. She shares parallels to her experiences with “Duck Syndrome” at Stanford University and how students can deal with it in their lives.

Atanaz Bohlooli – Senior Mechanical Engineer, Aerospace Certificate

Atanaz Bohlooli is a Senior Mechanical Engineer who participates in Duke Aero, holds multiple TA positions on campus, and interned summer 2019 for NASA. She speaks about effortless perfection being a group effect that hides the individual struggles Duke Engineers all experience.

Rishi Tripathy – Senior studying ECE/CS, I&E Certificate

Rishi is involved with Duke’s Engineering Student Government, and works closely with the I&E initiative. He speaks on the fact that many Duke students feel the need to “hide” their backgrounds, and assume that everyone comes to Duke on a level playing field, even when that may sometimes not be true.

Camille Carr – Senior Mechanical Engineer, Sociology Minor

Camille is a member of Business Oriented Women, a tour guide for prospective students, and an organizer of football tailgates. She shares her perspectives on the extra pressure that people create for themselves by looking at their Duke student peers as the “norm”.

Lyndsay Hu – Freshman Environmental Engineer

Lyndsay feels like Duke students are relatively honest about their struggles, and that effortless perfections isn’t a huge issue on campus. She talks about how Engineering feels “unsafe”, and can lead to feelings of insecurity, despite it being taught in an environment of safety through the FYD program.

Dane Erikson – Freshman Biomedical Engineer

Dane came to Duke because it is a place incredibly supportive of the unique path he wanted to take through college. He sees effortless perfection as the fake concept portraying a person’s ability to flawlessly achieve the entire “triangle” of sleep, social life, and academics.

Sydney Hunt – Freshman Biomedical Engineer

Sydney came to Duke because she saw it as a great mix of  academics, athletics, arts, and plenty of resources to do whatever she wanted. She speaks on her experiences as a freshmen biomedical engineer experiencing Effortless Perfection as the portrayal of other achieving infinite success with zero effort at Duke.