Keith wrote:
Do you routinely attempt projects out of your comfort
zone?
Absolutely.
Last year I found a scratch on the back of my car and wanted to fix it
myself. So I did. In the process, I messed up the finish a lot more,
so I had to sand it down and start over a few times until I got it just
right. Was the first time I ever tried such a thing, so it was a mess,
and even now it's a bit visible up close, but from a few feet away you
can't tell.
breaking them, I'd be very happy.Recently the tiles in my kitchen
started to rise and the grout from the sides started to loosen free.
That's the next project. I've no idea how to fix them, but researching
that now. The hard part is I don't have any more spares, and since
they're so old the home depot will have non-matching ones. So if I can
figure out how to completely loosen them out without (they're still
sticking though somewhat wiggling) :-) Hey, if you've any ideas on
how to fix'em or why they'd start rising up, I'm all ears.
While I think it is the right thing to do intellectually to expand my
knowledge, I often think that I waste a lot of time trying to do
fairly simple tasks in areas where I have limited knowledge or
experience.
True, to get to mastery level of almost anything takes about 10 years,
so how close is good enough for what you're trying to learn? Likely,
you'll need just good enough, which can be something the 80/20 rule
provides.
I think challenges can be rewarding, and I enjoy them.
"Anything
worth doing is hard." I think is the phrase.
They are. Well worth it. Especially if you're the kind of person that
gets a huge reward out of figuring something out or getting something
accomplished. No, just getting out of bed doesn't count, though I've
had trouble doing that the last few days since I've seemed to have
caught the Martian Death Flu from my kids and have been going back and
forth between fever and chills. :(
I try to do the necessary research, background reading, start from the
ground up before attempting to do anything. I still find that getting
your hands in it, ie learning by doing, seems to help the process along.
With all this being said, it sure is frustrating and the rewards come
slowly. While I DO like instant gratification, I don't expect it. I
do expect that the payoff, it terms of reward vs time spent is
reasonable. As my available personal free time has been less and less
lately, making sure that I'm not just wasting my time is important to me.
Depends on how much the reward is worth, and what other things would
your rather spend your time with. If you want instant gratification,
pay someone else to do it - if it's something that can be done by
someone else. If you want a real reward, do it yourself. Take the
time to learn how, practice on something less valuable, then when you
feel up to it, go for it. i.e. say you're trying to learn how to
solder, find some piece of junk like an old VCR, take it apart and
practice soldering and desoldering the boards until you can do it
cleanly without harming the boards, the components, or burning yourself.
Do you find that you spend most of your time on projects that are well
within your knowledge and experience, or most of your time learning
about new technology/skills/programming language/hardware/etc to
facilitate accomplishing a new project?
Most of the time, I spend time on what I
know, but that includes the day
job - less than 30% on new things. But I always keep an eye out for the
new thing that might prove a useful skill.