Reading the other campaigns on Kickstarter, I think I might not fit the Kickstarter mold... most of them are really tight and focused, but I'm giving off a bit more of a Jack Kerouac stream-of-conscious kind of vibe....
I'm ok with Jack Kerouac stream-of-conscious, but not Clint Eastwood stream-of-conscious. Any thoughts?
Thank you! It's encouraging to receive your positive and thoughtful comment about this question. The question itself is meant to provoke self-reflection, which I've also found to bring positive effects. I imagine your blogging process does the same thing. It's well documented that the simple act of journaling does wonders for mental health. What other benefits have you found?
Absolutely, and for me, the biggest surprise was how it boosted my energy and clarity for my day job. Writing felt like a mental reset. Instead of draining me, it actually made me more productive. I think this can be said for any hobby we enjoy doing.
At first, I was worried I wouldn’t find the time or that the hobby would take too much of it. Turns out I was wrong on both counts. I made the time, looked forward to it, and felt reenergized afterwards .
I agree that journaling has a similar effect, it clears the mental clutter and makes space for deeper thinking.
I love how this response started with a very pragmatic checklist and then quickly turned to some very specific and personal wishes. What would you be doing with that forklift and/or pallet jack now that the house was paid off?
You need to be able to move stuff around in a machine shop. I'd make gears and things for fun. The last job I had was very satisfying, but the pay and commute sucked. Doing it for funsies in my own shop would be awesome.
I'd start with my current harbor freight lathe and work my way up to building a cnc tool cutter and then gear hobbing, shaping, skiving, machines, all open source. I've got ideas on how to skive straight bevel gears, which is currently impossible because the pitch varies across the tooth.
Then on to photolithography, atomic force microscopy and eventually high vacuum systems.
I created a simple site to review GitHub repos. One might ask, "why review a repo?"
The purpose of writing a review is not to flag issues, but share UX stories.
For example:
- a repo could be working as intended, but *might not be a suitable fit for a particular user, stack, or implementation*
- a repo could be *losing momentum, core team moved on, orphaned, or have other development meta-issues* that would be helpful sharing
- particularly *critical issues are `wontfix` or `not planned`* or on a long-term dev roadmap
- multiple repos could be attempting to achieve all or part of the same goal
The *process of comparing repos can be very time-consuming*, and the venue for such a comparison does not lie within one of the reviewed repos (nor their issues, discussions, slack, or discord).
In these cases, it can *save a person hours if not days of work* to read a review.
UX stories can also be written once, and repeated queries funneled to the same point: "sure, take a look at my review here".
Multiplied across multiple teams and orgs this is a *significant increase in community productivity*.
I hope that helps to explain the goal of sharing UX stories in an independent, transparent, and centrally-located repo.
I'd love to get your feedback and anyone who wants to contribute is welcome to. Here's the link:
I'm ok with Jack Kerouac stream-of-conscious, but not Clint Eastwood stream-of-conscious. Any thoughts?