Maker Faire

Maker Faire promotes DIY. I still remember the old days that my dad used to make walkie talkie himself, with see-through plastic case that the circuit board and components inside were totally visible; he also made (assembled) a TV himself, with a nasty card board as front around the CRT, and with the back of the TV totally exposed. They weren't pretty, but they were innovative. At that age, not many people in the place I grew up had ever seen a TV.

The very reason I didn't become an electrical engineer even though I attended EECS at school was because I was never a handy man. Consider building a walkie talkie. In the old days, you didn't have a kit that every component was prepared for you and all you needed to do was to assemble; instead, you would need to print and cut the circuit board yourself! This would be too much for me.

I had chosen software programming. It was much much much easier. You could still use your creativity, but the assets you will need, the complexity of the project is much much much less. Yes, you need a Java compiler and a runtime. In the old days where no existing library, you would need to write your own. But, these are not on the same scale as printing your own circuit board!

Cooking is in between. It's definitely not as complex as hardware DIY, because the assets you need are quite simple - cookwares, ingredients. It's not as straightforward as software, because it not only needs an innovative mind, but physical skills as well. But without a doubt, cooking is a creative process, similar to DIY and software.

Solute to DIYers!