Woodworking is my hobby. I've built a few pieces of furniture, some of which I'm even proud of.
And though I have a garage full of power saws (miter, table, scroll, band, jig), as I focus more on joinery, I find myself using more hand tools. Recently, in fact, I've started working on a TV stand made with castle joints and mortise & tenon.
Woodworking has made me a better programmer. I spend more time thinking about my materials. More time planning how I do something before I do it. I spend more time experimenting on small innovations before I build a new piece with it.
Case in point, I built a desk with z-shaped legs doing pure joinery.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I did my POC on a small piece of wood and thought, "oh, this won't take long"
I built those legs five times before I finally got to the end product. And in the mean time, I learned that you shouldn't cut a joint in the winter and add pieces to it in spring (the wood shrunk, and joints didn't fit smoothly)
I might equate this to a "hello world" in React and then building a full blown, production-level app with it. I knew the basics of how to do it, but didn't account for the fact that things would change if I didn't stay up on it.
I also didn't do something basic like consider that the bottom part of the leg was part of my overall height, and that my desk would be 4 inches taller than anticipated.
That's a bit like the unit tests passing, but not ever doing integration tests.
Having to make a real thing, in the real world, with real resources that might be limited makes me more cautious about trying new things until I'm confident I know how to use them well.
Woodworking is my hobby. I've built a few pieces of furniture, some of which I'm even proud of.
And though I have a garage full of power saws (miter, table, scroll, band, jig), as I focus more on joinery, I find myself using more hand tools. Recently, in fact, I've started working on a TV stand made with castle joints and mortise & tenon.
Woodworking has made me a better programmer. I spend more time thinking about my materials. More time planning how I do something before I do it. I spend more time experimenting on small innovations before I build a new piece with it.
Case in point, I built a desk with z-shaped legs doing pure joinery.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I did my POC on a small piece of wood and thought, "oh, this won't take long"
I built those legs five times before I finally got to the end product. And in the mean time, I learned that you shouldn't cut a joint in the winter and add pieces to it in spring (the wood shrunk, and joints didn't fit smoothly)
I might equate this to a "hello world" in React and then building a full blown, production-level app with it. I knew the basics of how to do it, but didn't account for the fact that things would change if I didn't stay up on it.
I also didn't do something basic like consider that the bottom part of the leg was part of my overall height, and that my desk would be 4 inches taller than anticipated.
That's a bit like the unit tests passing, but not ever doing integration tests.
Having to make a real thing, in the real world, with real resources that might be limited makes me more cautious about trying new things until I'm confident I know how to use them well.
Well said! 👏🏻
I hope you enjoy your time using hand tools. I find it so relaxing to get out and be free to think without the noise and dust - very enjoyable!