Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Infosys Foundation USA Asks Why Do You Make #WhyIMake

Thanks to a Facebook link I found a video interview created by Infosys Foundation USA. on why he “makes.” This lead to one with Adam Savage of mythbuster fame on the same topic.Infosys Foundation USA. is asking other people to share why they make using the #WhyIMake hashtag. So I’ve giving it a go.

I’ve always like making things. As a kid I made push carts and push cars using wheels of all sorts. Mostly stuff we found discarded along the streets. Later we found bamboo poles that carpet had been rolled around for delivery and made interesting things like pole vault pits. Amazing we didn’t kill ourselves.

As I got older making became somewhat more practical. Installing shelving in closets, building decks and docks, and other things we used to just call do it yourself work around the house. I think of it as making though. It’s one thing to install pre-fabricated materials and something more (better? Maybe. Different? for sure) to take and repurpose things in ways they were not originally created to use.

Much of the making I do though is around software. It’s a blast to make some new creative program to do something interesting. Sometimes even useful.  I’ve made games to play, demos to show and teach concepts, and just to solve small specific and perhaps just personal problems.  Sometimes there are existing tools to do the job. The other CS teacher at my school has written programs to randomly call on students for example. I wrote my own. Not because his was bad or inadequate but because I had my own vision that was slightly different. And because the exercise of creation was just plain fun.

That gets to the heart of it. Making someone of my onw design is not always the easiest thing to do. And it is not always the most cost effective. Pretty often though it is the most fun.  Making things is fun. And while making can be educational and sometimes it can save you time and money most of the time being fun is reason enough.

No comments: