It's funny that you mention that. I, too, often have this reaction to really interesting, cool projects and accomplishments. But over the years, I've learned

It's funny that you mention that. I, too, often have this reaction to really interesting, cool projects and accomplishments. But over the years, I've learned to realize that the stuff that seems magical is not beyond my reach. Look no further than this article itself: > The idea originated when I was trying to think of an interesting idea for a project to help me learn Verilog and FPGA design, and the notion of building a simple raytracer came to mind (partly inspired by a scarily smart friend of mine who is building his own GPU). The way this author describes his friend who is working on a challenging design is 'scarily smart.' IMO "that other skill domain" seems intimidating from here but if you start small and are willing to put in the time, you can do it. The people who work on biochemistry, mechanical engineering, auto repair, digital hardware -- they're all just people, after all.