Hardly. I put the kits together in my spare time in the interest of spreading knowledge. The designs were open and published in a magazine in the UK as well. I don't do it any more because I am too damn busy, but the moment I retire,
I'm not driving self esteem - I'm just well equipped to say that you can't start without knowing the basics. I actually spent nearly 8 years as an engineering mentor, teaching others so I spread my knowledge. I also sit and help people but to be honest sometimes it's hopeless as they just don't have the fundamentals and aren't interested.
My problem is that the fundamentals are completely wiped out by the whole Maker movement in favour of short-cutting and getting things done, regardless of how dangerous or stupid they are.
> I'm just well equipped to say that you can't start without knowing the basics
I went from not knowing anything beyond hooking an LED up to a battery, to being published in EDN (for my brain-computer interface hacking) and talking at BlackHat (for my electronic lock hacking) in the space of a year. I didn't do it by learning the fundamentals -- I did it by jumping in and experimenting. I screwed up along the way, repeatedly, but I learned it very well.
Any time you say "you can't start without <insert learning method here>", you're almost definitely wrong, unless your goal is to be a surgeon.
Unfortunately, I observe the same trend - the whole generation of current 15-20 are shortcutting as a life style. Instead of engineering/making things, I observe this in other areas - finance, economics, accounting, math, stats... Sad to say my son is a good example here.
I work in the financial services sector now. We see the same thing with maths, stats and finance as well as electronics. People can't even do basic projection calculations such as TVM because they don't know what a logarithm is.
True knowledge is rotting.
The only advantage is that if you know your shit, then you're in an incredibly better situation than anyone else.
@meaty you say "I work in the financial services sector now".
with all your potential to teach and share your vast electronics knowledge, why stick around in finance? there isn't enough people willing to dedicate their time helping. snarky-commenting on hackernews does not change things - actual work does. write some articles, posting tutorials and ship cool kits - join in!
You forgot the "get off my lawn" bit. But, honestly, young kids these days want the fast feedback, and the likes of Ida help make the hobby approachable.
I'm not driving self esteem - I'm just well equipped to say that you can't start without knowing the basics. I actually spent nearly 8 years as an engineering mentor, teaching others so I spread my knowledge. I also sit and help people but to be honest sometimes it's hopeless as they just don't have the fundamentals and aren't interested.
My problem is that the fundamentals are completely wiped out by the whole Maker movement in favour of short-cutting and getting things done, regardless of how dangerous or stupid they are.