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I find that so helpful, thank you. I think you scratched the itch in my head. I think my real concern is, "was the shed building time well spent?" I think it se

by p0d 5y ago

I find that so helpful, thank you. I think you scratched the itch in my head. I think my real concern is, "was the shed building time well spent?" I think it served it's purpose and helped me de-stress. I am 50 now and need a new focus. As you mention, we have x capacity. I am hoping that my "this time 5 years ago photos" in 2027 are not pictures of sheds :-)

lifeisstillgood 5y ago
Also hitting that big milestone I am wondering what you have in your mind for those 2027 photos?
- p0d 5y ago
  I think this is the true root of my pondering. I don't know quite yet what direction to point myself in.
  - abakker 5y ago
    Maybe the answer shouldn’t be “one big thing” but an exploration of a variety of endeavors?
mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
I dabble in woodworking, have built some picture frames, coat hook thingies, a cheese slicer but mostly have built shop furniture. I came to the realization that if I want to build a workbench, for like the 4th time, it’s because I enjoy just building stuff. Watching professionals on YouTube and just society in general fills my head with thoughts about needing to have goals and maybe build stuff to sell as a side hustle or whatever. I enjoy building stuff and I’m just going to build stuff for myself and if the end result is I enjoyed shop time then that is a success and time well spent.
- abakker 5y ago
  I would never degrade the effort spent on shop fixtures or tools. Often the highest Echelon of any craft is toolmakers. It is certainly true in machining. I know very little about software engineering as a trade, but it seems that half the stuff on HN is tooling used for making software. It is obviously valuable.
  - saalweachter 5y ago
    At the same time, it's important to remember the maker's conundrum: "Wait, wasn't I making these tools for a reason?" If what you intend to be working on is tools, more power to you, but it's very easy to get caught up in building a new workbench, or adjusting the settings on your window manager, or writing a new programming language, and forget the thing you actually intended to make at the beginning using the tool you stopped to make. At some point you have to stop making tools and start making other things. (Unless you're the GP, who is just consciously making tools for fun.)
    - sgtnoodle 5y ago
      I got a 3D printer years ago to use on a specific hobby project, and I ended up not touching the hobby project again until about 6 months ago. I've rebuilt my 3D printer numerous times though!
    - mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
      Maybe a better way to say it is that I enjoy the process of building something with wood. If I suck at it and the end result isn't great, at least I still enjoyed the process and tinkering. Its funny that I'm very pragmatic with software work though. I don't spend any time looking into new/upcoming languages or tinkering with compilers or whatnot unless I have a work project. It seems like a waste of time since the software world turns very quickly.

by p0d 5y ago

lifeisstillgood 5y ago

Also hitting that big milestone I am wondering what you have in your mind for those 2027 photos?

p0d 5y ago
I think this is the true root of my pondering. I don't know quite yet what direction to point myself in.
- abakker 5y ago
  Maybe the answer shouldn’t be “one big thing” but an exploration of a variety of endeavors?

mattbrewsbytes 5y ago

I dabble in woodworking, have built some picture frames, coat hook thingies, a cheese slicer but mostly have built shop furniture. I came to the realization that if I want to build a workbench, for like the 4th time, it’s because I enjoy just building stuff. Watching professionals on YouTube and just society in general fills my head with thoughts about needing to have goals and maybe build stuff to sell as a side hustle or whatever. I enjoy building stuff and I’m just going to build stuff for myself and if the end result is I enjoyed shop time then that is a success and time well spent.

abakker 5y ago
I would never degrade the effort spent on shop fixtures or tools. Often the highest Echelon of any craft is toolmakers. It is certainly true in machining. I know very little about software engineering as a trade, but it seems that half the stuff on HN is tooling used for making software. It is obviously valuable.
- saalweachter 5y ago
  At the same time, it's important to remember the maker's conundrum: "Wait, wasn't I making these tools for a reason?" If what you intend to be working on is tools, more power to you, but it's very easy to get caught up in building a new workbench, or adjusting the settings on your window manager, or writing a new programming language, and forget the thing you actually intended to make at the beginning using the tool you stopped to make. At some point you have to stop making tools and start making other things. (Unless you're the GP, who is just consciously making tools for fun.)
  - sgtnoodle 5y ago
    I got a 3D printer years ago to use on a specific hobby project, and I ended up not touching the hobby project again until about 6 months ago. I've rebuilt my 3D printer numerous times though!
  - mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
    Maybe a better way to say it is that I enjoy the process of building something with wood. If I suck at it and the end result isn't great, at least I still enjoyed the process and tinkering. Its funny that I'm very pragmatic with software work though. I don't spend any time looking into new/upcoming languages or tinkering with compilers or whatnot unless I have a work project. It seems like a waste of time since the software world turns very quickly.