I have been spending time working in my garage workshop. What I was doing there was solving some problems with my home built CNC router machine I call the HB2. I estimate I have run it for close to 80 hours which means many dozens of carving projects have already been produced. After all this operation, tiny flaws reveal they can cause serious problems. The machine began breaking down!
I have always enjoyed working on complex mechanical and electrical devices. It is something I have always done. So tuning up the HB2 was a chance to solve some technical electrical and mechanical problems and while doing so, learn a lot more new things of the operation of the machine and its component parts.
Is it easy? No it isn’t. But it wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy. Doing something easy over and over is not learning something new. It is called practice.
I enjoy the learning process. I love studying the details, breaking things down, taking them apart, and looking for evidence. This old human thought machine in my skull is not about to stop learning. Only when there is a challenge is there a new learning experience.
It’s the same reason every mechanically inclined person enjoys this kind of work. There is a certain feeling, I call it a high, from solving problems and getting something mechanical working perfectly again. It beats mood changing drugs any day.
The HB2 is back into fine operating condition once again. So it is time to look for the next hard thing to do.
My philosophy is to not always take the easy way. Like I said, that’s called practice. If Iwant to learn something new, I try the hard way once in awhile. I don’t throw that broken device away, I fix it.
Calling something hard to do, other than requiring brute force, generally means I have to think and solve unexpected problems or, overcome the unknown. (i.e. thinking hard.) That’s called a learning experience.
It really makes me feel good to taste sweet success, even if there was some bitter failure along the way. If it was easy, everyone could do it.