Where do I start?

Thinking about getting started, where to do it, and how you might do it even

Getting started is the hardest part. Of most things. You can want and want and want for something, and nothing will happen. Unless you actually do something. Ain’t that a trick? For me, right now, I want to get started, again, with robotics. But where do I start? I could build a drone? Sure. Or a little robot car thing? Yea. Or, or maybe a device I can put above my door to open it before I walk in? Yea, I could do that. But why? and where do I start?

I have found that the start isn’t where people think it is. It’s not writing something down or ordering the parts. It’s convincing yourself that something is worth your time. Finding the why is what we need to start with. The steps after that are really only a google (and a veritable number of transactions) away.

The why can come from a mirage of places. Pure, genuine muse or inspiration that comes to you on a dramatically wintery day. Or your boss. Maybe something you read online. Usually though, the why comes from a problem that needs solving. A task that needs doing. Where you decide you’re the one to do it. (Or someone else decides for you and you agree because decisions can be hard.)

So, well I can’t really help you with the why. I wish I could. One day I will. That’s the plan. (More on that another time.) For now I have to worry about my own why. But what I can do, is help you with where to start. As I dust of the soldering iron and flex those roboticist muscles again, I’ll chart a course. I am, or I have been, an engineer, writer, reader, table top gamer, hiker, circus freak, researcher, fire spinner, public speaker and biscuit lover. Among other things. And as I re-discover things or embark on new things I’ll document the start and speculate on possibilities. I’m talking links, stories, instructions, maybe a tutorial or two?

You deal with the why, I’ll help with the start.