Conversation

I once attended a talk about “coding kata.” I don’t think the idea ever took off. It works even worse with hardware. Something about engineering seems to defy learning through abstract formal exercises of growing combinatorial complexity. Like music scales or kata. Wonder why.
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This may even be the dividing line between artisan craft and engineering. Unlike woodworking or other traditional proto-engineering crafts, the modern maker world is engineering, just at low-cost amateur level. It lacks the “katafibiality” of skills.
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My suspicions: specialization of both labor and objects kills katafiability. Music has 12 semitones, martial arts have perhaps a dozen basic movements. My beginner Arduino electronics kit has like 50 components, all with idiosyncratic features to learn. My dremel has 28.
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And this *beginner* level shit, barely scratches the surface. I’m now vaguely oriented in a world of 100s of electronics parts, and a seasoned electronics maker has a vocabulary of 1000s I think. Same with mechanical (think types of drill bits, fasteners…).
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Replying to
Hm, there are 963 items in my datasheet collection. Some for the parts that didn't get used, and some parts i used weren't complex enough to have or save a datasheet. So a 1000 different components is in the right ballpark.
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Replying to
And I think if you included all the mechanical and chemical parts and tools you’ve also had experience with, I think your number will be closer to 2000.