jamius.com

I noticed a lot of you guys have quite a lot of technical knowledge. I don't really have the knowledge or equipment to tackle a lot of projects i'd like to try. How did you guys get it? Do you work as an engineer and learned this stuff at uni? Are you a tradesman? Do you just tackle project after project and slowly accumulate knowledge gained from books and the internet? I'm just a second year mining engineering student and I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to learn how to weld or use CAD or design a circuit or whatever.

I have a computer engineering degree and have worked as both an electical engineer and software developer, although software is all I do now. I have very little experience with the more mechanical aspects of what goes on here.

That being said, you don't have to have a degree to do any of this. The world is full of sources of information these days. The internet is a wonderful resource. Places like this are great places to share information. I have worked with people that don't have degrees and people that have degrees in completely different fields than what work they are doing.

The information to do whatever you want is out there now for all to see. It is just a matter of knowing what you don't know, but knowing how to go and look for it. You can see this in Jaimie's videos occasionally. You will see him say I don't know about this. Does anyone have any information on ...

It is his attitude that allows him to do what he does. Obviously you have to be intelligent, patient, and be willing to learn. A lot of hard work comes into play there to. It is easy to watch the youTube videos and wonder how someone can do stuff like he does but 10 minute videos can't capture all the effort that goes into it.

This is why I love watching his videos and seeing how he reasons things out. He is learning all the time and enjoying it. I am pretty sure he was never taught how to build a giant robot. My guess is that he learned the most about it by playing with Legos as a kid:)

I have a background in construction, estimated for a contraftor for a few years, worked for an architect and learned AutoCAD there, switched to energy efficiency field and government service recently and am taking Env. Studies part time at university now.

x0-000 wrote:Do you just tackle project after project and slowly accumulate knowledge gained from books and the internet?

yep.

I learned most of what I know by simply being curious.

I'd ask myself, "How does that work?", or "Why is this possible." I'd also always get very interested in things sometimes. Like right now I'm VERY interested in solar panels, so I'm just researching online and watching vids, checking out prices and stuff.

I really just learn by doing. If you screw up... just start over. Life is one big learning experience.

Of course having a good imagination always helps for building things. If you can see it in your mind it's much easier to build in person (especially if you suck at drawing).

I do think making mistakes is a crucial part of doing anything. If you aren't making mistakes, you aren't learning anything.

With the Banana Building Jaimie made a mistake by assuming it could hold up the snow. I must admit, I would have never guessed that building would have collapsed from snow. Buildings shaped like that distribute the weight very well.

What is important is that he learned from it and made it into an opportunity to do something really cool. Repairing that building isn't an easy task, but it is very impressive.

How did he know how to repair a Banana Building? He tries stuff, takes his time, learns what works and doesn't work, and doesn't quit.

There is lots to be learned from these videos.

Ya, I'm like Corrado. If you've made it to 2nd year in college engineering, you made it further than me! ha ha. I'd already learned enough on my ow just being curious, and trying things that by the time I tried to learn in school, I was too far ahead.

One thing I did learn in school is that they teach really really really slow. I can learn more in a week of trying things than I did in that entire first year of engineering at Brown.

There are loads of thing I still haven't learned that I'd like to, and as long as I have the motivation, I'm sure I'll keep learning cool things.

I know people learn different ways, but thats how I do it.

Oh... and I always make sure to translate anything I learn into really basic language so that concepts are applicable to as wide a range of.... things as possible. Thats why I refer to something like a steel car axle as a "strong stick". Car axle implies that its uses are artificially limitted. Its a strong stick, and can be used for anything that needs a strong stick. ...smashing stuff, drilling big holes, holding up heavy stuff, connecting 2 things together with welding, weight lifting, bending into chain, defending against monsters.... putting wheels on... lots of stuff.

jamius wrote:One thing I did learn in school is that they teach really really really slow. I can learn more in a week of trying things than I did in that entire first year of engineering at Brown.

Oh... and I always make sure to translate anything I learn into really basic language so that concepts are applicable to as wide a range of.... things as possible. Thats why I refer to something like a steel car axle as a "strong stick". Car axle implies that its uses are artificially limitted. Its a strong stick, and can be used for anything that needs a strong stick. ...smashing stuff, drilling big holes, holding up heavy stuff, connecting 2 things together with welding, weight lifting, bending into chain, defending against monsters.... putting wheels on... lots of stuff.

Agreed on school teaching slowly. I think if school was more focused on DOING the things rather than simply reading about them, we'd learn SO much quicker.

And I love the idea of breaking something down to the simplest thing it can be. It's... uh... a different way to look at a lot of things. Different, yet useful.

Whenever I learn things, I've always had a knack for being able to TEACH it in very simple terms. I tutored math in college, and I always tried to break things down to exactly what they were. If you were revolving a line around an axis (calc 2), I'd say 'Hey look, if you think of the line as a silhouette, what does it look like?" Once someone says "It looks like a pot/face/cup/phone/key/whatever", it's SOO much easier for them to visualize.

Break big problems down into small ones that you know how to solve.

I used to love building little Lego things as a baby (my dad says i built a dragster out of Lego when i was 5, and motorized it when i was 6) used to build little cool models and things that caught my parents eye. My dad put me onto a show called robot wars when i was about 7 and i have been building combat style robots ever since (albeit for the first 2 years it was just hacked RC cars...i was 7 after all) built my first antweight when i was 11 and now own 2 100kg RC heavyweights! They were great projects that i really loved to work on, i learnt more then than in 10 years of science, art, design or math classes. I think that proves that if you have common sense you dont need to have a fancy degree in "specialspacestuff-ism" or anything, take Jaimie for example, he studied Art, and look where he is now or Kipkay: http://www.youtube.com/user/kipkay he's probably one of the best makers on the internet and he studied Journalism of all things.

Jack

corrado33 wrote:I learned most of what I know by simply being curious.

I'd ask myself, "How does that work?", or "Why is this possible." I'd also always get very interested in things sometimes.

Yeah, that seems to have a lot to do with it. I was fortunate, and my Dad always answered my questions growing up. I would always be asking "how?" and "why?" He's a maintenance electrician, so he knew a lot about how things worked, and how to fix things if they broke, etc.

Like Jaimie said, break things and ideas down into simple, general pieces, and go from there.