> I never took an electronics or computer course in my life.
Same! One of my favourite things about these fields is that you can take the time and learn everything you need to know just by looking at the internet.
> I had a plan to work with kids after school to collect data in the field and analyze it on computers with open source software, and give them a CD/DVD to take home (it was that long ago) and give them access from home. Pride of ownership. "This is my work".
This sounds really interesting. Why did it not work out? I think pride of ownership is an important aspect of this so keen to take any learnings.
> Many kids aren't self-teachers
Totally agree, the aim here is to get away from 'looking at random blogs for 4 hours' to building your first project. Then introduce them to trawling the internet for arcan knowledge slowly ;)
1. I have found internet sources of information byte-sized, disconnected, and incoherent. When people ask about books, I say that they have the "three C's," Continuity, Coherence and Context. Something about the internet seems to encourage foraging over farming, but that might just reflect my current internet habits.
2. I never ran into a partner to help start and grow the idea.
3. "Packaging" is important. Nothing real happens for free. We all knew this when we bought parts or kits. The internet has its downsides. Long story short, just helping people take time away from it can be beneficial. The lure and benefits have to outweigh the costs. I personally got payback, albeit modest, from every kit built and every bit of learning, sooner or later. The "This is fun" aspect might call for a community of users or a mentor of sorts. I have been tech help for a lot of people over time, and honestly, there's no comparison between phone and text messages (still doing it) and "being there", and that is/was key on the after-school idea. Do what works for you and your young (or old) customers.
Hey, thanks! These are really cool bits of inspiration.
> but the Radio shack kit never really explained why anything worked the way it did...
This has been my experience also. We recently built a solar powered toy with my nephews and when we got to the end they asked 'so how does it work?' which hit the point home for me.
Do you have any ideas on how to create engaging content for the app around this? We've got so far:
- Mini articles on each component (with accompanying video).
- Mini quizzes to embed learning.
I don't have any great ideas on how to do it right - I'm in the "don't know what I don't know" phase of electronics. Part of the reason I quit playing with electronics was that I already knew Visual Basic pretty well, and so I could program engaging things quickly while the electronics took a lot of fiddling with no understanding to sometimes get a result.
This has been a handicap in my career where I would by default reach for a Raspberry Pi or a National Instruments RIO in places where an IC or a Arduino would suffice. Stuff like data acquisition units (DAQ) and control systems are prime examples. Maybe by giving those applications first? I can think of several projects my 12-year-old self would have found a use for a DAQ or control system.
Sharing the first build log of our STEM toy startup: why we’re building it, the tech stack, what’s working, and what’s not. Looking for advice + ideas from this crowd.
I find articles like this super interesting, but they remind me that I’m a deeply technical person and as such would never be able to thrive in the ‘business’ world.
The modern YC startup philosophy of ‘make something people want’ seems to be only partially true. There’s this whole world of coffee dates, relationship building and salesmanship which always feels slimy to me.
Same here. My career situation isn’t looking great, and I haven’t felt truly satisfied at any of the places I’ve worked. I do believe there’s a role out there that strikes a better balance between meaningful work and a sustainable lifestyle—but finding it feels almost as daunting as starting a business from scratch.
You need to do those coffee dates and relationship building to figure out what (other) people want, so it's not even far removed from the philosophy you quote. Yeah, it's _ideal_ if you're your own customer and you have this intuitive knowledge of the product, but that's actually less common (and needn't be common either). As a tech person, I don't find it slimy (at least, anymore). On the pure tech front, it's a process of finding requirements, which flows into the this whole business conversation side of things.
For example, if you view building a business that people want as a challenge, those requirements will vary from place to place and time to time, so finding that out is super important!
Interestingly, I've always viewed the Indian business environment as one that requires a lot more relationship building than (say) a place like the valley, but this article seems to imply that the UAE probably views us the same way I view the US ecosystem...
This quote (or rather, "notion", since I no longer remember where I picked it up from) has stuck with me for over a decade: ultimately all business is based on trust; you can't encode everything in the contract.
There is a gentler version of this that I, a technical person, deeply enjoy.
Trust removes friction. Having an informal network of trusted peers makes everything easier. You get access to expert knowledge, helpful connections and opportunities simply because you're a friend. They also come to you when your knowledge is relevant to their task.
I just see it as another community, except this one is centred around an industry. It's no slimier than introducing single friends to each other, borrowing tools from a friend, fixing a friend's computer or tipping them off when a flat frees up in your building.
In my case, it means that I can call upon the knowledge of an immigration lawyer or a financial advisor for free. It also means that they get dozens of clients from me because they're my go-to experts.
Yes. I never play fancy dress with suits. Formal for me means a nice, comfortable shirt and jeans or other clean trousers. On an average day I wear shorts and sandles because it's damn hot. I wear suits to funerals, and once to a wedding, but even most of the weddings I go to have a "smart casual" vibe them, no full suits required.
I rarely meet with investors or anything like that, but when I do, not dressing up is a test. If they judge me for what I wear, beyond basic cleanliness, we're not a good fit for working together.
> It's quite a prestige thing to be able to afford the amount of cooling needed to wear a suit in a desert...
I don’t believe you’ve ever been to Dubai if you think that cooling here is in any way a luxury. Your aircon breaking in the summer is treated like a health emergency. Nobody is living without aircon in the summer.
I spent a long time working in manufacturing and struggled to find a piece of software where we could define a process, share instructions and collect data all in one go.
The idea is you can basically turn your process into an interactive flowchart and follow it through. I’m almost code complete on the MVP, moving into distribution mode in a few weeks.
I’d love to hear from any HNers who’ve gone from 0 to 1 on a SaaS for non technical users. What worked for you?
Hey everyone, i've learned a lot from HN over the years and wanted to share some of the work we've been doing at Prolific. It's late here now but will happily chat tomorrow.
I just finished building my own IoT platform and I’m honestly so proud of it.
It’s completely free. Please try it out it would mean the world to me! Would love some feedback.
N.B. Finished the landing page and docs this morning. Done I’d better than perfect so expect some rough edges.
reply