A Grasshopper Mentorship Experience · Grasshopper3D Challenge

A Grasshopper Mentorship Experience

Ertunc and I completed our one-on-one Grasshopper journey last week. It was a 12-week experience filled with exercises, challenges, and, perhaps most importantly, a lot of thinking.

When I started, I had a pocketful of things I knew, things I didn’t know, and things I only thought I knew. I felt like I was drowning in the vast sea of parametric design, struggling to even catch my breath. Now that the course is over, looking back and seeing how all of that has evolved makes me genuinely happy. More than anything, I feel that I now have a way of thinking and a system for approaching problems.

We actually started back in May with a couple of preliminary sessions, so the whole process was more like 2+12 weeks. During those first two weeks, Ertunç asked me all kinds of questions. In many ways, we simply talked. By the end of those conversations, he had prepared a series of observations and suggestions specifically for me. We went through them together, and from there, we began the course with a learning path tailored to where I was and what I needed.

Each week had its own rhythm. Ertunc would introduce a new topic, challenge me with a problem during the session, and finish by giving me an assignment to work on before the next one. Throughout the week, as I reviewed what we had covered and worked through my assignments, I could keep track of every point where I got stuck through a system we both stayed synced on. We could then discuss those problems as they came up. In that sense, a lesson never really stayed confined to the few hours we spent together. It extended across the entire week.

I think another thing Ertunc did particularly well was managing my learning curve. He made sure that the things we discussed gradually became skills I could actually use, rather than ideas I had simply encountered once. Somehow, he kept me engaged with the repetition, practice, and reflection needed for that transformation to happen. He is a very good educator in that regard.

I know parametric design is still a vast ocean, and there is an enormous amount left for me to learn. But today, I can see that I have learned how to swim in it and how to keep myself afloat.

And I have to say, that may be the most valuable thing Ertunc gave me throughout this journey.

Thank you, Ertunc.

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A Grasshopper Mentorship Experience