Someone at the makerspace last week asked how I seemingly know how to use every tool from sewing machines to soldering irons and lathes to lasers, and my reply was that my favourite thing to do is learn. Whenever people ask what I want to _do_ with a skill I’m learning I often have no response, I just love learning things to learn them and get good at them. I’ll definitely find uses later, but it’s not why I learn stuff.
@sen this is exactly what kept me in academia for so many years.
and it only became more enjoyable when i moved from enjoying learning, to enjoying teaching people how to learn.
> Whenever people ask what I want to _do_ with a skill I’m learning
> Someone at the makerspace last week asked how I seemingly know how to use every tool from sewing machines to soldering irons and lathes to lasers
"Asked and answered." ;-)
Oct 21, 2026, 5:21 AM@sen Same!
@sen May I draft you for my apocalypse survival team (not a fantasy league unfortunately)
@AnarchoNeighbor absolutely.
Oct 21, 2026, 10:51 AM@sen Sounds a bit like me. Now I don't want to learn *everything*, but these things, sure, and I know the basics of them, except lasers. Have no experience with them apart from waving a laser pointer or infrared thermometer around.
@sen Congratulations you're probably a polymath :ablobcatmaracasevil:
Oct 22, 2026, 11:05 AM@sen I never actually enjoyed ‘learning’ in an academic environment, but I’m 55 now, I do: carpentry, plumbing, 3d printing, engineering, fixing engines, sewing, furniture making, electronics, journalism, social enterprise mentoring … even been known to do a bit of knitting in my time!
I’m not a fan of learning, but somehow I’ve learned stuff
@sen Can you teach me how can I use the soldering iron while being a visually impaired? I want to learn it since a long time
@akash07k I'm unlikely to be able to help that much being (presumably) far away, unfortunately. My process involves microscopes (either a digital one I solder under directly, or an optical one I inspect each joint with post-solder depending what I'm doing) and a combination of inspection, knowing the right tactile cues for things, and relying more on solder paste and drag soldering and less on soldering individual pins. It's the kind of thing you'd really need someone local to help teach though, and IMHO a microscope is essential.
@akash07k (also my central vision is relatively good, and peripheral vision is not as involved with soldering, so soldering is less impacted for me than a lot of the rest of life is)
@sen Yes, I understand.
And since I only have almost no vision, I'm sure that it probably is extremely difficult or next to impossible to learn it. especially when the components and PCBs are too small and the pins are 2 close.
@sen From sewing machines to lasers is quite the range!