I was driven to focus on modern firearms because the classics were not enjoyable to me when I was starting out. I grew up shooting my dad's guns, and they were not just relics, he refused to buy any more ammo because the stuff he bought in bulk back in the 70s was still around. It was extremely frustrating because it made it really hard to learn to shoot well when I had to clear a misfire every other round (the ammo had corroded, but would he listen? nooooope). I also was infuriated to learn that "springs pinging across the room" is an expected part of the maintenance process and thought surely, surely there must be better ways, because who has time for that? So I appreciate the history tremendously but as far as things I actually want to shoot, I really value a pleasant user experience.

The other reason is that I have always been driven first and foremost to study the past mainly as a means to consider in very concrete terms what comes next - that's why I went into product management in the first place. As a PM, you're engaging in worldbuilding exercises all the time where the world you're writing about is ours, and what you're writing about is really going to exist, and you have to figure out the best way of making sure the world you're imagining is as close to true to reality as possible. That means studying a whole lot of history but it always has me looking at it main through a lens of thinking about where it's all headed.

If I had my druthers I'd have started a rocket company, but this is the best I can do as far as making the future real. As jobs go, there's worse.