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Lego is fantastic, and it's worth re-discovering if you haven't played with it since childhood. My wife bought me a 2,500 piece Star Wars kit last year (the Emp

Lego is fantastic, and it's worth re-discovering if you haven't played with it since childhood. My wife bought me a 2,500 piece Star Wars kit last year (the Emperor's Shuttle) and it bought me to a place of zen-like calm for the two weeks it took me to build it. I'd sit down, and bang, instant flow. Best of all, I could carry that over to the computer if I wanted to do some programming. It's almost drug-like in its power. There's something amazingly satisfying about unquestioningly following detailed instructions and seeing something tangible emerge before your eyes. I love it.

dquigley 14y ago
Totally agree. I picked up a box of plain Lego blocks for my desk at work a little while back. They start conversations, are great to fidget with while on the phone, and can provide a nice distraction when needed. Definitely a good investment.
- arethuza 14y ago
  Great idea - "Lego - Conference Call Set".
jmj42 14y ago
I agree. We bought a mindstorms kit for me daughter a year ago (she has engineering aspirations). I have to confess, I've had as much fun with it as she has.
- user24 14y ago
  Mindstorms is a brilliant product. They used it to teach robotics for undergrad IT at university. I built a machine that could play blackjack (light sensor moved over the pips of a playing card, discovering the card value). It was brilliant.
  - drivers99 14y ago
    That is pretty cool. What did you do about face cards though?
    - Evbn 14y ago
      They are all worth 10 and they do not match any of the pip patterns of the numbers. They have color in all the spots you would look for pips. Other numbers don't.
      - user24 14y ago
        Exactly. I didn't even need to write any special code to deal with them, they just naturally come up as tens. Did you just work this out or have you done something similar?
- scrumper 14y ago
  I have a 3 month old daughter. It is my secret wish that she'll want to play with this kind of stuff when she's old enough. If I keep the wish a secret then there's a chance she'll come to it on her own.
  - jswinghammer 14y ago
    From experience if you want your kid to develop an interest in something you'll want to expose them to it and not just keep it to yourself. My daughters love Legos and Duplos. They play with them constantly. My 5 year old is getting the Jabba's Palace set for Christmas this year. It's all she really wants.
    - scrumper 14y ago
      Thanks, that's encouraging and you sound like a lucky father. I'll expose her for sure, I just meant that I don't want her to know that's what I want her doing so I avoid triggering her rebellious instincts.
      - jswinghammer 14y ago
        That doesn't really start for a long, long time. If you just keep good toys around they'll take to them. If they really just don't like building then you find something else but in my experience just exposure to toys is a great starting place.
scrumper 14y ago
I'll add something else for balance here: I went to see The Avengers after studiously avoiding any marketing for the film. I wanted my mind free to experience every scene for the very first time, like a pledge-ring wearing co-ed looking forward to her wedding night. I didn't even know that Loki was the villain, that's how innocent I was. My friends and I arrived at the cinema early, secured great middle seats and sat back to endure endless local commercials (Annie got it done no less than four times.) Then it was time for the very last advert before the trailers started: Lego. A Lego set featuring the Avengers. An animated Lego set where the various characters recapitulated the plot of the film in thirty seconds. Many, many angry voices cried out, to the general tune of, "That better f-ing not be in the movie." It all was. It tainted our experience pretty badly. Even if the advert had featured a completely different story we'd still have been looking out for similarities. This was a few days after opening weekend, too! I still love Lego, but she's given me my first disappointment. I guess I'm growing up.
- podperson 14y ago
  In general, tie-in ads that are full of spoilers are extremely annoying and, I suspect, do not help anyone.
  - ConstantineXVI 14y ago
    If you're in SF, Sundance Kabuki doesn't show ads beyond a trailer or two. Much nicer theater overall vs. anything in my corner of the world. (Sundance has theaters in a few other major cities as well, but SF's is the only one I've personally been to.)
    - podperson 14y ago
      Sounds good but no use to me :-) My sister used to frequent a Bay Area theater where the ads comprised the owners of the theater chatting (honestly) about upcoming features and the food they were serving (and this was considered a hugely positive component of the experience). It's interesting to me that no major movie chain has tried to differentiate itself along the lines of "going to movies at our theaters is actually pleasant" but I guess the fact that they're able to sell soda and popcorn at a 1.0E+5% markup dwarfs any business model trying to sell some kind of decent experience at a plausible price.
throwaway1979 14y ago
Heh .. good for you! I'm an AFOL (adult fan of lego). For me, it started when I got a Mindstorms set to play with robots. I needed pieces for more sophisticated contraptions and the addiction began. As with all things, moderation is key. I've got about a dozen high-end technic sets at this point. And I realized I had a problem ... my lego addiction was insatiable. Addictions aren't always bad .. but for me personally ... my lego addiction was bad. I didn't learn anything about building. All I did was follow the instructions to build the model. It was ... as you said .. zen like. But I got no feeling of accomplishment. I'm not an artistic person and have no interest in building MOCs (My Own Creations, in Lego community speak). Anyways ... I have gone cold turkey. Haven't bought one in 8 months or so. I could crack any day if there are any good holiday sales :-p
- scrumper 14y ago
  Not to sound like an enabler, but did you try the Unimog set? That's educational: transfer cases, gearboxes, portal axles... All true-to-life. You'll learn some mechanics from it.
  - throwaway1979 14y ago
    Haha ... yup .. I've got that! And nope .. I didn't learn a thing. I think when I follow the instructions, my brain shuts down. This is what you referred to as the Zen-like state of bliss :) My new hobby is a bit better in terms of learning. I started building radios and learned quite a bit about electronics (filters, tank circuits, etc.). I even got some kits to play with. When a circuit works like it is supposed to, I do get a sense of accomplishment :) From an addiction point of view, this is still pretty bad. Except now I'm funding worthy causes like SparkFun and Adafruit instead of Toys R Us :-p
czstrong 14y ago
Your experience sounds great and something I've been trying to replicate. Building something with your hands and watching it come together provides a different level of satisfaction and enjoyment than hacking on your computer. Recently, I've been trying to come up with ideas of "adult" things I could build in my spare time without taking up too much space in my apartment - such as model vehicles or aircraft. I hadn't even thought to just revert back to Lego, which I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I think I'll give it a try, thanks!
- scrumper 14y ago
  Enjoy! Start big, I'd say :) Do read throwaway1979 above. Building Lego sets brings quite a different sense of accomplishment to programming (or carpentry, painting, cooking etc.) I think that's why I like it: I can switch off very effectively. It becomes a little like meditation. I'm not an addict though; one set a year since I rediscovered it (only two in total.)
jeffbarr 14y ago
I can really identify with that flow state you describe so well. I have built 5 or 6 of the larger Technic and buildings (each thousands of parts) over the last year or so. The structured play (simply follow the directions and you will get to the goal) is a very welcome counterpoint to the somewhat unstructured way in which I spend my days (here's a blank page, describe a complex product in any way that you see fit).
pcote 14y ago
I can feel you there. However, there is a certain zen in the opposite as well. Having a general idea of what to build and a general plan and direction but little else. The specifics are left to between you and the thing you are building as you build it. And that's what's beautiful about a good general purpose bucket of bricks. It's right brained creativity which complements Lego's instruction-based kits.
- gknoy 14y ago
  One thing I've noticed is that many of the (secondhand) buckets of bricks we've found are NOT a general purpose bucket of bricks. It seems like half the pieces are special-made for a specific purpose. ("Oh, this is a squid-head. This is a custom-made tailpipe for a race car. This is a police-car-top-shell. This is a Gungan head.") I exaggerate, but it's very noticeable when I went to build something with my son this past holiday. Looking at sets in the store (I still ogle them ;)), it seems to match this pattern as well. Granted, you can buy them in bulk, and you can special order ones you need, but ... it seems not quite the same. I'm sure part of it was that the legos we were rummaging through were poorly organized (color? size? vintage?), and could not be used more than one pucket at a time due to spatial constraints. ;) I think that the key may be to buy large-ish sets which have enough general purpose things: plates, angled plates, angled blocks in varying directions, etc, or to special-order bulk collections of things.
jeremyarussell 14y ago
I can't believe I forgot about that with LEGO's. I find puzzles are good for that too. I think I'll have to buy myself some kits.
sharkweek 14y ago
For me, I got really into Minecraft for a while and felt that same magic and wonder that Lego offered as a kid -- Creating mockups and wireframes of things I wanted to create, then building them in the game, was just a ridiculously awesome experience.
- shaunxcode 14y ago
  indeed, also the experience of collaborative development is hard to get over. So hard to shake that my entire focus has now shifted to creating a collaborative development environment which facilitates a similar experience for creating software.

dquigley 14y ago

Totally agree. I picked up a box of plain Lego blocks for my desk at work a little while back. They start conversations, are great to fidget with while on the phone, and can provide a nice distraction when needed. Definitely a good investment.

arethuza 14y ago
Great idea - "Lego - Conference Call Set".

jmj42 14y ago

I agree. We bought a mindstorms kit for me daughter a year ago (she has engineering aspirations). I have to confess, I've had as much fun with it as she has.

user24 14y ago
Mindstorms is a brilliant product. They used it to teach robotics for undergrad IT at university. I built a machine that could play blackjack (light sensor moved over the pips of a playing card, discovering the card value). It was brilliant.
- drivers99 14y ago
  That is pretty cool. What did you do about face cards though?
  - Evbn 14y ago
    They are all worth 10 and they do not match any of the pip patterns of the numbers. They have color in all the spots you would look for pips. Other numbers don't.
    - user24 14y ago
      Exactly. I didn't even need to write any special code to deal with them, they just naturally come up as tens. Did you just work this out or have you done something similar?
scrumper 14y ago
I have a 3 month old daughter. It is my secret wish that she'll want to play with this kind of stuff when she's old enough. If I keep the wish a secret then there's a chance she'll come to it on her own.
- jswinghammer 14y ago
  From experience if you want your kid to develop an interest in something you'll want to expose them to it and not just keep it to yourself. My daughters love Legos and Duplos. They play with them constantly. My 5 year old is getting the Jabba's Palace set for Christmas this year. It's all she really wants.
  - scrumper 14y ago
    Thanks, that's encouraging and you sound like a lucky father. I'll expose her for sure, I just meant that I don't want her to know that's what I want her doing so I avoid triggering her rebellious instincts.
    - jswinghammer 14y ago
      That doesn't really start for a long, long time. If you just keep good toys around they'll take to them. If they really just don't like building then you find something else but in my experience just exposure to toys is a great starting place.

scrumper 14y ago

I'll add something else for balance here: I went to see The Avengers after studiously avoiding any marketing for the film. I wanted my mind free to experience every scene for the very first time, like a pledge-ring wearing co-ed looking forward to her wedding night. I didn't even know that Loki was the villain, that's how innocent I was. My friends and I arrived at the cinema early, secured great middle seats and sat back to endure endless local commercials (Annie got it done no less than four times.) Then it was time for the very last advert before the trailers started: Lego. A Lego set featuring the Avengers. An animated Lego set where the various characters recapitulated the plot of the film in thirty seconds. Many, many angry voices cried out, to the general tune of, "That better f-ing not be in the movie." It all was. It tainted our experience pretty badly. Even if the advert had featured a completely different story we'd still have been looking out for similarities. This was a few days after opening weekend, too! I still love Lego, but she's given me my first disappointment. I guess I'm growing up.

podperson 14y ago
In general, tie-in ads that are full of spoilers are extremely annoying and, I suspect, do not help anyone.
- ConstantineXVI 14y ago
  If you're in SF, Sundance Kabuki doesn't show ads beyond a trailer or two. Much nicer theater overall vs. anything in my corner of the world. (Sundance has theaters in a few other major cities as well, but SF's is the only one I've personally been to.)
  - podperson 14y ago
    Sounds good but no use to me :-) My sister used to frequent a Bay Area theater where the ads comprised the owners of the theater chatting (honestly) about upcoming features and the food they were serving (and this was considered a hugely positive component of the experience). It's interesting to me that no major movie chain has tried to differentiate itself along the lines of "going to movies at our theaters is actually pleasant" but I guess the fact that they're able to sell soda and popcorn at a 1.0E+5% markup dwarfs any business model trying to sell some kind of decent experience at a plausible price.

throwaway1979 14y ago

Heh .. good for you! I'm an AFOL (adult fan of lego). For me, it started when I got a Mindstorms set to play with robots. I needed pieces for more sophisticated contraptions and the addiction began. As with all things, moderation is key. I've got about a dozen high-end technic sets at this point. And I realized I had a problem ... my lego addiction was insatiable. Addictions aren't always bad .. but for me personally ... my lego addiction was bad. I didn't learn anything about building. All I did was follow the instructions to build the model. It was ... as you said .. zen like. But I got no feeling of accomplishment. I'm not an artistic person and have no interest in building MOCs (My Own Creations, in Lego community speak). Anyways ... I have gone cold turkey. Haven't bought one in 8 months or so. I could crack any day if there are any good holiday sales :-p

scrumper 14y ago
Not to sound like an enabler, but did you try the Unimog set? That's educational: transfer cases, gearboxes, portal axles... All true-to-life. You'll learn some mechanics from it.
- throwaway1979 14y ago
  Haha ... yup .. I've got that! And nope .. I didn't learn a thing. I think when I follow the instructions, my brain shuts down. This is what you referred to as the Zen-like state of bliss :) My new hobby is a bit better in terms of learning. I started building radios and learned quite a bit about electronics (filters, tank circuits, etc.). I even got some kits to play with. When a circuit works like it is supposed to, I do get a sense of accomplishment :) From an addiction point of view, this is still pretty bad. Except now I'm funding worthy causes like SparkFun and Adafruit instead of Toys R Us :-p

czstrong 14y ago

Your experience sounds great and something I've been trying to replicate. Building something with your hands and watching it come together provides a different level of satisfaction and enjoyment than hacking on your computer. Recently, I've been trying to come up with ideas of "adult" things I could build in my spare time without taking up too much space in my apartment - such as model vehicles or aircraft. I hadn't even thought to just revert back to Lego, which I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I think I'll give it a try, thanks!

scrumper 14y ago
Enjoy! Start big, I'd say :) Do read throwaway1979 above. Building Lego sets brings quite a different sense of accomplishment to programming (or carpentry, painting, cooking etc.) I think that's why I like it: I can switch off very effectively. It becomes a little like meditation. I'm not an addict though; one set a year since I rediscovered it (only two in total.)

jeffbarr 14y ago

I can really identify with that flow state you describe so well. I have built 5 or 6 of the larger Technic and buildings (each thousands of parts) over the last year or so. The structured play (simply follow the directions and you will get to the goal) is a very welcome counterpoint to the somewhat unstructured way in which I spend my days (here's a blank page, describe a complex product in any way that you see fit).

pcote 14y ago

I can feel you there. However, there is a certain zen in the opposite as well. Having a general idea of what to build and a general plan and direction but little else. The specifics are left to between you and the thing you are building as you build it. And that's what's beautiful about a good general purpose bucket of bricks. It's right brained creativity which complements Lego's instruction-based kits.

gknoy 14y ago
One thing I've noticed is that many of the (secondhand) buckets of bricks we've found are NOT a general purpose bucket of bricks. It seems like half the pieces are special-made for a specific purpose. ("Oh, this is a squid-head. This is a custom-made tailpipe for a race car. This is a police-car-top-shell. This is a Gungan head.") I exaggerate, but it's very noticeable when I went to build something with my son this past holiday. Looking at sets in the store (I still ogle them ;)), it seems to match this pattern as well. Granted, you can buy them in bulk, and you can special order ones you need, but ... it seems not quite the same. I'm sure part of it was that the legos we were rummaging through were poorly organized (color? size? vintage?), and could not be used more than one pucket at a time due to spatial constraints. ;) I think that the key may be to buy large-ish sets which have enough general purpose things: plates, angled plates, angled blocks in varying directions, etc, or to special-order bulk collections of things.

jeremyarussell 14y ago

I can't believe I forgot about that with LEGO's. I find puzzles are good for that too. I think I'll have to buy myself some kits.

sharkweek 14y ago

For me, I got really into Minecraft for a while and felt that same magic and wonder that Lego offered as a kid -- Creating mockups and wireframes of things I wanted to create, then building them in the game, was just a ridiculously awesome experience.

shaunxcode 14y ago
indeed, also the experience of collaborative development is hard to get over. So hard to shake that my entire focus has now shifted to creating a collaborative development environment which facilitates a similar experience for creating software.