This resonated with me a lot. The wizard vs king power thing really clicked for something I’ve been feeling a lot lately. (And apparently I’m not the only one, your post had 320 upvotes when I wrote this comment lol)
I got into programming when I was a kid because I liked creating things, and it took me a long time to realize that generalized to physical creation too (I’ve only been getting into maker stuff for like a year). Vibeclipse (the TPOT event) kind of sparked the transition for me, but I think it just leveled up my agency, and the desire-to-create was already there.
I’m still very low level with making stuff, the sorts of things I make are like, laser-cut lamps or a deck of custom metal tarot cards, or a wooden plaque for scanning the house’s wifi password. Pretty trinkets, nothing like vaccines or biotech research!
But even so, there’s something about it that feels right in a way that’s hard to explain. A focus on the end result, a dedication to improving skills. The way you described the toothbrush, wanting something that you couldn’t simply buy—that’s a very familiar feeling underlying all my maker projects. When I create something it’s completely unique.
I held on to that thought, for a few days. Some time back in college, I’d decided not to build CAD skills; it seemed like too much of a time sink. That was a mistake, wasn’t it? If I wanted to make a nice toothbrush, the main thing I’d need was basic CAD skills, a bit of money for a one-off injection molding job, some research to figure out more robust bristle materials, plus a little elbow grease to assemble it all.
You could also 3d print it and then seal it, in which case you could get by without true CAD and use something simpler like Blender or Plasticity.
This resonated with me a lot. The wizard vs king power thing really clicked for something I’ve been feeling a lot lately. (And apparently I’m not the only one, your post had 320 upvotes when I wrote this comment lol)
I got into programming when I was a kid because I liked creating things, and it took me a long time to realize that generalized to physical creation too (I’ve only been getting into maker stuff for like a year). Vibeclipse (the TPOT event) kind of sparked the transition for me, but I think it just leveled up my agency, and the desire-to-create was already there.
I’m still very low level with making stuff, the sorts of things I make are like, laser-cut lamps or a deck of custom metal tarot cards, or a wooden plaque for scanning the house’s wifi password. Pretty trinkets, nothing like vaccines or biotech research!
But even so, there’s something about it that feels right in a way that’s hard to explain. A focus on the end result, a dedication to improving skills. The way you described the toothbrush, wanting something that you couldn’t simply buy—that’s a very familiar feeling underlying all my maker projects. When I create something it’s completely unique.
You could also 3d print it and then seal it, in which case you could get by without true CAD and use something simpler like Blender or Plasticity.