Is Adam Savage's Cave Messy on Purpose?
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2023
- Does Adam have days where he has imposter syndrome as a maker? Is the cave cluttered on purpose?! In this livestream excerpt, Adam answers questions from Tested members C2Lawson and SelahPictures, whose support and question we appreciate! Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions and watching exclusive videos:
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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching! - Věda a technologie
This channel is now part of my self care routine. It’s helping me reframe what failure is and means and I am so grateful for these kinds of videos.
We’re so glad, and thank you for taking the time to tell us.
@@tested does Adam Savage still contain the model container ship from killer whirlpool. Cause I build model boats and I loved that container ship he used it must be hard to find room to put all the stuff you made in the past or created now or purchased in the past couple of days.
They're maybe failures, but always a success as an experiment.
@@colegensch787 Come on man. Don't hijack someone else's thread just because someone at the channel commented here.
Agreed on this type of video being part of self care. It is for me as well. Adam explained here something I have felt for years but waa afraid to articulate when he discussed feeling like an imposter. Also a shop being an expression of a work philosophy and wanting my tools near when creating are things that really help me understand myself.
Its not messy, its organized chaos
Exactly, from chaos comes creativity!
I always describe my shop as "barely controlled chaos" in a similar vein. There's seemingly no rhyme or reason to where any tool or material is at any given time, but they all seem to be where I need them when I need them. And if I need them on two different work benches, chances are I have two of that tool or material, one for each space.
so, messy
A messy shop cave isn't the same without every square inch being coated in sawdust and wd40 lol! 😆
Totaly agree
As much as I love Adam for his Marker Skills, I have come to appreciate him even more for his well-earned wisdom. Adam is the Mr. Miyagi of Makers.
Let's also acknowledge that Adam's shop is cozy af
Truth!
It’s very cozy. I’d love to visit and take a tour. I can spend all day looking at the stuff
@@Berm_Blaster my favorite section is the inner sanctum made up of shelves as walls where they used to shoot the podcast and where the pool table is.
Paul McCartney has imposter syndrome.
And there's a story that Neil Gaiman was at some sort of science conference and wondering why he was there. He got to talking with another guy (mainly because they shared the same first name) and the other guy pointed to all the scientists who were talking, and commented that he didn't belong there, and kept waiting for someone to kick him out. Gaiman looked at him and said, "but you were the first man on the moon. That counts for something."
It's pervasive.
I think I've heard that story before, or some variation of it. Neil has often talked about expecting someone to tap him on the shoulder and tell him he doesn't belong there. Albert Einstein had it too and I'm sure everyone has it to some degree at some point in their lives.
Paul McCartney *is* an imposter though. The real one died decades ago.
@@Elwaves2925yea im 35 y now and people come to me for advice how to aproach their project and i still feel it every day. No idea how expirienced id have to become to even aproach losing that feeling and when i tackle something new it even increases.
Well, in Paul's case it makes sense, because he's been living off Ringo's brilliance for decades.
@@gaddag1477 I have a few years on you and I still get it too. I've kinda learnt to accept it even though I don't like the feeling.
I don't see a mess. I see a shop with everything in its place. Just like a chef's kitchen. We don't have to understand the order. My 23yo son struggles with being too humble. He has had mentors tell him to stop. Easier said than done. He's learning he has something to contribute and to be proud of it
THANK you, yes. To both things. I think people see it as messy because they can't parse how it is organized.
Welcome to "Therapy Sessions (Formerly Known As 'Q&A')" with Dr. Savage. 😁
Seriously, Adam shares so much infos on life advice and how to be a good person it's always so damn educational and eye-opening. With every snippet of these Q&A sessions you always learn something new... 😎👍
I get the "imposter syndrome" quite often - but because of a different angle. I grew up in a part of the country where the vast majority of people are stuck in a pirouette of poor education, dangerous low-wage work, health issues, poverty. Basically you are born there, you exist poorly there, and you die there. I was very fortunate to escape, and the cost of that escape was basically everyone I had known up to the point of exit - turning their back to me (which honestly, not a bad thing in retrospect) and not knowing how I was going to "make it." I was 16 when I took a chance and left - and now that I am early 40s and look back at the adventures I have had because of the great escape I often can't believe the life I have led. Sometimes it doesn't feel real. I will be somewhere, doing something amazing or seeing something I only could dream of as a kid - and think to my self "How is a barely educated hillbilly like myself here right now?" I get the feeling I am going to wake up, and my "real" life will be the one I left all those years ago. Then I realize it isn't a dream, laugh myself to tears at how fortunate I am for taking the chances - and continue appreciate what I am currently involved in. Adam, and the tested team - thank you for the content you produce as it is a lighthouse in the storm of modern divided society. Keep up the good work.
Oh, yes. I also left home (WV) as soon as I could, and feeling like this amazing life I've built for myself is somehow 'not real' is a daily experience. And no matter which context I'm in, there's always the feeling of not fitting in, of pretending. Very real.
The way you phrase your sentences in different compelling patterns, compiling of metaphorical expensive words like “Cacophony” mixed with cheap generic 50 cent words like shit fight. I extremely enjoy listening to you explain your world and experiences in this manor. This to me, presents a deep inner thought process of what we as humans are really capable of doing if we give ourselves the chance to think, build, and interact in our own personal environments while at the same time engage in the rest of the world around us. Thank you Adam for showing your powerful process of life as a maker.
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comment -- we'll make sure Adam sees it!
60+ years on this earth, 40+ in my career, many achievements and earned respect from other professionals, and still in the back of my mind is "when will I get caught out". Imposter syndrome is real. Keep at it!
gosh, adam really can articulate these thoughts so eloquently. i love listening to this man
Adam, I'm in the middle of building a new shop. I have completely rethought the entire spectrum, the flow, and the needed energy that will become the soul of this space. I have now involved a maker friend of mine for his input. Thank you for all that you do. Just remember this. To so many of us out in this world, you are highly regarded and respected.
My dad's workshop was complete and utter chaos, but he had the same rationale where everything had to be accessible. He always claimed that he knew where he has left every tool. It was usually true, except for all the times he forgot and spent more time looking for the thing than actually working on the project. As a result, I tend to prefer a more organized space. Not sterile, but everything in its place.
I know exactly where I left every tool also, until I haven't used it for a month or so. My biggest problem is that I'll think, I will put this very little used tool right here so I will remember where it is but then won'e need it for months, or sometimes even a year, afterwords and I've then forgotten where it is. But I do know where the vast majority of my tools are even if to an outsider it looks like a complete mess. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone else uses a tool and doesn't put it back where they got it because the organised chaos just looks like a big mess to them and then I can't find it when I need it.
The only time I spend time looking for tools - after I clean everything up and put it away.
My dad was a machinist, now in his 80s, and is amazed that folks want to learn his trade again. He wouldn't call you an imposter for learning it midlife!
My grandfather turns 100 this month. Still owns his commercial machine shop and went to work every day until late last year when the parkinsons got the better of him. Machinists are a special breed, I think the constant hand eye coordination and mental accuity needed to do the task precisely and safely keeps them sharp. I remember when he called me at about your dad's age asking me what a good touch screen would be for a computer he just built (at 80 something) to run his CNC machine 😂 meanwhile my parent's generation struggles to send a photo via text.
People have never stopped learning machining. I dont think there is any particular resurgence niw.
@@mdoering Wow!
I have a thin strip of pine living on my workshop wall. It came out of a straight 2x4 that the table saw ate and threw across the room (cut the strip after the accident). It's a strip of wood about the thickness of a fingernail. Looked like a dried wet noodle now, completely warped and twisted on every axis. It taught me how much energy can be stored in wood, and how insane of a material wood is at holding that energy. Also how much a table saw wants to yeet your board across the room.
I'm glad to hear hanging failures and lessons on the wall isn't unheard of.
i'm very new to the Maker community and my shop is currently a bandsaw and drill press so the first question and its answer was very uplifting to me, keep doing the good work adam
You're better equipped than a lot of us. 😂
I love this so much. I am 55 years old and it has taken me literal years to figure this out and now I pass it on to my staff. It is okay to say I don't know. Imperfections are necessary. Messes are part of the process. This is a safe space to fail. Your best effort is just the first draft. Give it your all but expect dissatisfaction. You will have opportunities to redo it.
All good work has creativity at its core whether you're a painter, a lawyer, a builder, or an analyst. Being allowed to stretch and take calculated risks is essential to almost any human endeavor.
On the matter of messiness in the shop:
I think there is a big distinction between a personal workshop or a one-person-company and a professional production shop with employees.
If you work by yourself, as a hobby or professionally, your shop can me much more messy, or look that way, as you are the only one working there. You can find everything, you know what is there and nothing you do is going to bother someone else. As Adam said, you can decorate with failures, but also successes as motivation, as they mean something to you. Other people just see a cluttered wall and might be distracting.
In a larger shop where people work just as a job, you want it to be clean and tidy. It is easier to work quickly and efficiently in a well organised workshop. Anything out of place will be noticeable, so everyone cleans up after themselves, which means your work is never in the way of someone else. If everything is in its place, you can always find everything you need as other people might be using the same tools. I've had the experience of working in a super messy workshop as an employee and I was wasting so much time finding stuff, figuring out if we had the right tools (and sometimes finding them days later) and generally having to clean up before I started a job, as it was always a mess. This really kills motivation as you are always doing extra work to do what you had planned and you just waste time, which always sucks.
A good example of messiness attracting messiness are changing rooms in sports clubs used by many different people, or public toilets. As soon as something is written on the walls, it will turn into a Jackson Pollock painting in no-time. Keep the walls clean and they will remain clean, as that first tag will stand out and be very obvious. The second one not so much and so on.
Fear of failing hinders one from developing, learning from mistakes is a valuable teacher.
This was a great video Adam, my soon to be ex-wife always called me a hoarder (despite the fact we could park a truck, a car, and 4 bikes in the garage very comfortably amongst my shop setup) I very much ascribe to the "visual cacophony" principle, and while it may *appear* disorganized, I know where everything is. (at least until she started trying to re-arrange/throw things out)
Love this! I used to spend so much time looking for tools. We have a farm, so a hammer might've last been used in the barn, garage, house, pumphouse, to fix fences... I could never remember where I last used it, and I'm admittedly not great at putting things back. Then I had an epiphany! Why not have multiple hammers? I went ever further and have area-specific tool kits. House kit has a smaller hammer, screw drivers, and such. Barn kit has everything needed to mend fencing, do barn fixes, etc. Even have a hammer attached to my tractor. So much time saved!
This is the way to go. I have a tool kit in my car. Boat-specific tool bag on the boat, I intermittently repair pianos and those tools I hide, and there is the kit from which I lend out tools. The latter piece-by-piece disappear regularly - when complaint arises that someone in the household can't find a pliers they know they were the people who used it last. Yours is definitely the way to do it.
I work for the ‘ very foreign office’. Here in the U.K.
It’s a major moral boost to be able to view you , given my normal circumstances (away from home)
Thank you
Thank YOU Adam,,,I needed to hear that ,,,I NEEDed to hear that
Anyone who never makes a mistake- never learns from them.
Anyone who claims they never make mistakes is a liar.
I always say: Smart people learn from their mistakes. Really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.
Thank you so much for how you talked about iterations from failure to success on a build. I always feel ashamed and really mad at myself about "wasting supplies" during that pathway. Thank you for that reminder that failure is often a normal part of the process.
My brother runs a small hobbiest machine shop and we have what we affectionately refer to as "The shelf of opportunities". It's full of random bits and pieces, failures, faulty ideas and designs that he can look back on and develop his abilities as a machinist. I'm also an automotive technician and I tend to keep parts and pieces that may have failed in an unusual way, or things that took me forever to diagnose as a visual representation of my successes and failures. It definitely comes in handy.
The idea of hanging failures on the wall really appeals to me. I just finished my very first crocheted top. It was a stash buster project mostly to get over my intimidation about making clothes. It is a complete shit show, but it’s a garment-shaped shit show, and I’m kind of proud of having finished it, if not proud of the actual thing. Hanging it on the wall actually would make me happy, and remind me that I completed a project I didn’t think I’d ever do. Thank you for a lovely idea!
I love shop talk. That WET company sounds awesome. Last company I worked for had a very disorganized, messy and dark shop that was only like 14x14 cluttered with desks. My boss at the time transformed that space into a very useable space, buying a nice giant tool chest with a butcher block top for working on projects and eliminating extra desks that only got used to store junk and replacing them with shelving. I've since left that job and the new job has effectively no workshop for engineering (we have to share tools from maintenance). We are slowly changing that as budget allows, but I feel so out of my element right now not having dedicated basic tools to do my job.
You’d be amazed at how many places you are viewed.
A taste of what we are fighting for.
Thank you 🙏
It's nice that even with the extent of the tools and knowledge that you have, you still include when you run into problems and make mistakes. It's helped me to not be so hard on my self when I do. 👍
Adam is so honest and upfront with his thoughts, reflections and wisdom it is just fantastic. One of the best channels on youtube.
Hearing Adam talk about failures and iterations reminded me of the overtures Ludwig Von Beethoven wrote for his opera " Fidelio." He wrote the first one, listened to it, thought: "It's OK, but it could be better". So, back to the composition board. After hearing the second version ( Lenora Overture #2 ), he thought he could still do better, so he composed the Lenora Overture #3. The thing is: they are all good ! Most composers would have been happy with #1.
If he was alive today, he would have published the first one and then released the other two as paid DLC.
"Every single shop is the externalization of a philosophy about how to work." It seems obvious when summarized this way, but this is some serious insight.
I love your "messed up merit badges" I think that progession display is what those also represent. We should be proud of our mistakes.
My mistake currently has me living in and building out a 27foot uhaul van.
It's fun...keeps me going
I am grateful to hear you talk about my old foe: imposter syndrome.
My shop has a similar amount of chaos. I am constantly reorganizing my tools so I can move between them easily. When I have projects in production, all of the tools and parts are filling every available flat surface. Then, as I complete each project, the scraps go away and the tools go in drawers until the shop is clean and the next cycle of work begins.
Some of the things that I noticed as being unique to Adam Savage's videos are the lack of attempts to put on a perfect show, but I've come to really appreciate his authenticity and enjoy his enthusiasm for what he does!
One thing I have def. embraced from watching Tested is to see my workspace as a constant work in progress. Organizing in a small space is challenging, but these videos encourage me to always look for ways to refine my process to best use the little space I have.
This is a beautiful episode. Adam you ARE one of the great makers of this era. Your philosophy is greatly inspiring and comforting as someone who feels the same feelings as you. I know that I can overcome the imposter syndrome because of all people you feel the same way. Thank you for this.
There’s a certain environment we carry with ourselves also.
Love it, thanks so much Adam!
Shops are always closed on Sundays... But it is so rewarding to sit down on Mondays (after you already winged the project) and research / buy all the missing tools for the next time!
I like the "everything in arms reach thing" for me you can add on "visible" I don't like digging through drawers or looking for things. I have everything in the spots that I want but sometimes there's too much stuff stored with them for me to find quickly. This led to me reorganizing my room by putting my clothes not in drawers but in cubbies of a storage shelf. I see all of my t shirts and jeans and hoodies etc at a glance
Adam and these vids is also part of my self care for ASD+PTSD+Bipolar II
This is why i love the building, making, and electronics community. because no matter what there is someone who went or is going through the exact same thing. Never doubt yourself because almost all of us have been there and felt that. their is always someone at a arms reach away willing to help you on a project or whatever. this is why I love our community
Some people can have piles of junk everywhere and they can tell you EXACTLY where the one thing they need is at. Adam is one of those people.
It's not junk. It looks like junk to the untrained eye. My workspace is crammed with tools and parts. I know where they all are. Yet theres no room to move in there
@@spr00sem00se I didn't mean to infer that what Adam has laying around is "junk". It's all usable stuff but to the untrained eye, it would certainly look like "junk" because it doesn't seem to have a purpose until all the bits and pieces are put together. :D
The thing I most respect about you, Adam is that you share your failures with your success and tell how important it is for growth. Much appreciated.
I make audio circuits, mainly guitar effects but also preamps and a few other things. At my workstation there is a drawer labelled "Museum" and it is filled with everything that broke or i couldn't get to work properly. It's gratifying to see all the projects and their iterations before they were finished for all the reasons you described
Your shop reminds me of an old fashion hardware store. When you mentioned a hardware store it hit me that is what I have been looking at while watching your videos. Love it!
Hearing Adam say "Shit fight" has to be the highlight of my day❤😂
The best part about the "visual cacophony" you speak of is, in my opinion; it opens up creativity to a much higher degree than a "sterile" workplace. If you know and can see visually exactly where the item you THINK you need is, there's much less chance of what I've seen you and other successful creators do. Which is go "well I need x item, but hey! This guy right here could do the job too!" I feel this is the cornerstone of innovation. You don't push boundaries when you pick the same tool or material for the same jobs time and time again. It comes from trying something new, or accidental you found, it leads to outside the box thinking, and I love that.
It's a busy space, but organized. Also, I know you say "Drawers are where things go to die…" but to me you just decided to work inside the drawer!
About as messy as a Jackson Pollock painting. It's beautiful.
man you are my hero, you are the reason why I got interested in making things. and even though I made some nice things and a lot of people believe in me now more than ever I do get that feeling, the tap on the shoulder, oh boy when you read that from the message.. it hit me hard because I always feel I'm not good enough, I'm not skilled enough. even though I try to show myself what I achieved, this thought still daunt me.
so, thank you for these videos that re-ignites the flare. you are one of the best makers out there.
A much needed discussion on imposter syndrome and failure as a whole. Love this video!
I get the impostor syndrome a lot as well. Mainly because I'm a self-taught programmer who flunked out of school. Sometimes I sit there at my desk and just wait for a colleague to be like "Hey, what are you doing here? You're not a programmer, you're just a wannabe!", but then I remember that some of the colleagues who I look up to the most come from exactly the same background. Whenever I make a mistake I think that was it, you're out, but that's because I fail to see the multitude of things I've done right. It's easy to lose your sense of self-worth when you only see your mistakes.
THank you for helping ADAM,,,IM in tears right now but it is good,,,,iv never cried so much in my life and liked it than the last few months,,the sad tears are good to but they hurt,,,cause i feel the worlds pain,,the animals,,,,,,,,,,and the people alike,,,all of them,,,,,,,,,,,it grows stronger each day as it tells me,,,,you dont have much more time,,,then they wont even be able to talk to you any more,,,,,,,,,,so I PUSH as much material ON to the internet so EVERYOne has a chance to see it before I go
Adam, to me you are a one of a kind weird creative gem. The way you think, express, explain, bring in your personality so clear and unfiltered in all beauty and distractions … that is so inspiring knowing about your journey you took. Amazing. Thank you for sharing in your unique way.
Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. For showing me that I'm not crazy for having a bunch of tools and materials. Nothing as nearly extensive as yours, but still, having some interesting tools is a good thing. Thank you for helping me see it's good.
When I first got into machining, it was tough! I persevered and stayed with it. I also went to college to learn a little more, that helped me to better understand what I was doing. Now: I go to work and do my best, I forget things at times when I've been off for a few weeks but still manage to recover.
Love the shop ! Rock on!
On that first question, it's the pure "imposter syndrome" feeling. It's becoming more and more recognized.
I'm a concert photographer (not full time, unfortunately), and I often say that my goal at every show is to do well enough so that no one realizes I was let in by mistake. And I've been "let in by mistake" for around 7 years now.
The flipside to that, though, is that get aggravated when a non-photographer (editors, frequently) tell me my photos are of questionable quality. In particular, I had a AP editor tell me some political-rally photos I had were "borderline unprintable." For all the imposter syndrome I feel, I DO know what I'm doing, and if ya don't like it, cool. But "not liking" and "low quality" aren't the same thing.
I love his shop! It reminds me of my dad's workshop and I/we had some of our best times there. Everything was in it's place for a reason, a reason I often learned from hours of practice😅
I always doubt my legitimacy as an artist and also have a very chaotic art room where I know where everything is but no one else can make sense of it. I’m sorry I don’t have much to give but this video makes me somehow feel more validated because you are so inspiring. Thank you so much!
Thank you for your super thanks! We appreciate your support!
Ray Bradbury made a very similar statement. If you look at pictures of the basement that he would write in, it was covered floor to ceiling in piles of toys, pictures, books, paintings. He said it helped inspire ideas and find connections between things. For instance, a toy dinosaur next to a picture of a lighthouse may have inspired "The Fog Horn". Environments can help promote or inhibit creativity. I think in a space like Adam's there has to be a core of organization because you need to know where the tools and materials are. It's not like Bradbury just looking out into the room and then typing. That's why I really like Adam's cave. You see the method embedded in the madness. There's structure inside it, so he can keep that "flow state" he talks about.
Adam the philosopher ... hear, hear‼
"Hang some failures on the wall… it was failure, failure, failure, less failure, less failure, SUCCESS." 5:56 Such a great subsegment!
I really enjoyed this insight into the Adam psyche of how he likes to work and learn. Fantastic workspace, no wonder you like it so much!
Damn i was expecting something but not a live lesson which just hit home for me.
Thank you Sir very much for that and all the respect for everything you do!
The best time of my life was right after I retired, when I got a workbench/lab-space in the back of a surplus electronics store in return for identifying, testing, and pricing incoming surplus, and answering technical questions. Having the back-door key to a free 24/7 lab stocked (and organized) with millions of assorted components of a wide vintage was awesome. Need a germanium transistor and NPO capacitors? No problem. They are 100 feet away, in stock, in their bins, in order. Sigh. It was wonderful.
I too have had the privilege of touring WET Design, and I agree that it was the most amazing shop I have ever seen. I still recall the wood shop with a tool board with inlaid shapes for each of the tools and a gorgeous parquet floor. And that was a small part of the shop; dozens upon dozens of high end CNC machines of every stripe, and even a chemistry lab.
I'm listening! And it's sinking in. Thanks for the insight.
You talking about Building a space where the flow state isn't interrupted and everything is accessible is exactly the feeling I have and chase as a digital artist. I want everything to be a shortcut, I want everything I can automate to be automated. The less I have to wait for anything the better. The idea must become reality ASAP. Also why it's extremely annoying when programs break and I have to troubleshoot haha
Love your comments about maker spaces, thats so true. Thats why i think I appreciate CZcamsrs who embrace failure as part of the process. Iteration equals evolution.
As for being surrounded by tools, materials and assorted doohickeys, those are all potential solutions to a problem and just the glimpse of a particular thing might spark inspiration. The clinical shop has it's place, but it can be just like a blank canvas, insidiously intimidating!
Ha! Literally just walked into the house after spending the morning tidying my garage, bench and reorganizing my clamps and a peg board and this video popped up.
I love this channel❤ keep up the awesome work. It was also cool seeing you on the expanse It’s one of my favorite Sci-fi series.
The best quote I've ever heard, from Stephen King: "I am my worst critic." It still resides in me 30 years later! Keep it up, don't listen to that voice.
1:16 I believe this feeling help us to double check things and drive our curiosity to learn more, to be able to achieve more and more.
My shop is a cacophony of the senses. I keep failures around that are not perfect to tell myself that I am not perfect and I can screw up and it's ok, I can see where I went wrong and how to do my furniture restoration better. I am always broke, but when I can I add something I need to make a project. Right now I am tearing down a wall of failures that I made to hold shop stuff a long time ago and making it better and it is helping my creativity on another restoration project.
No worries, this is a sign of a creative people.
Thanks Adam, I started in a shop that should be labelled "clusterf****d". Tools were scattered anywhere and everywhere with no sense of reason. Roofers helping around the shop get called out to a job and leave whatever tools they were using wherever they were being used, even outdoors for the elements. Of course, when they need a clean place to work, they come to one of my benches (I have a small parts rebuild with drill press bench and a welding bench with a 9" heavy duty vise for making, holding and shaping stuff). They leave that bench a mess. I'm not obsessed with tidiness but I do like to rebuild a gearbox without contaminating it with mill work, drill shavings, grinder particles or tools and grease scattered over them. I really enjoy your vlogs! Thanks
I love hearing folks discuss "imposter syndrome". Like other thoughts/emotions it hits different for everyone. But it can certainly shut folks down.
I don't know how I got over it, or if I even have. But I've been complimented directly by several different program/system managers at NASA. PhDs, literal rocket scientists, engineers that actually design/buld satellites.... And yet, I still catch myself doubting my skillset. It's just part of the lifelong learning that keeps me engaged and, hopefully, prevents complacency.
If you gave me a month to think about the question, then allowed me to write down my answer, edit and memorize it (or read it off a prompter) I couldn't come up with an answer a tenth as eloquent and thoughtful as the stuff Adam seems to pull off the top of his head when he reads member questions. It's impressive.
Side note:
Adam wearing a seiko SKX009 is something i didn't expect but really love. Way to go adam. Watch heads (specifically seiko heads) get it.
This is one of the best monologues I have ever heard anywhere. The entire video is fantastic, but this, this is truth to everything we do wrong today! 5:45 This is so important! Thank you Adam!!
Your videos and philosophies are part of why I've ended up seeking out and learning creative and productive skills like metalworking and welding, and am also now in a CAD office learning how to design things.
I've been part of the CZcams-makers' audience for a long time now, and it's full of so many wonderful people, but you in particular are in many ways a significant mentor.
I've also seen Temple Grandin's talk about autism at Google, and her passionate pleas to explore and participate in the technical world, and not let ourselves end up stuck gaming all day living off welfare or a boring sustenance-job.
I still have a twinge of imposter syndrome once in awhile, though not nearly as much as I used to. It's definitely a function of age that it fades away; being older than you, I can confirm that. 🙂
I understand the chaos. I _feel_ the chaos! I've always had work areas like that, my whole life. It just somehow works better for me. Especially when I don't have to expend the extra energy to make everything look perfect after every little task!
I'll put it away when I'm done with it, for example, or I'll leave this tool here all the time, because I USE it on everyday stuff, all the time, and why waste the extra time going to get it, then putting it back, every day, when it's perfectly safe and out of the way, yet within reach, right HERE?
Love ya and what you do, Adam! ❤❤
I had a similar shifting of clarity during Covid. I'm not a machinist, but still suffered from IS in my professional life across multiple ventures. And something about the lockdown and the years still grinding away... it's not that I suddenly became profoundly confident, it's that I stopped giving a F. I'm still listening to constructive criticism and absorbing feedback, but I guess I came to a "life's too short, I'm enjoying this, GOOD ENOUGH" mental state.
It's actually nice to hear other people talk about impostor syndrome. I'm currently trying to get into a design job and I know I got a designer's brain, but I worry sometimes that once I'm there, I'll be out of my depth and will get dismissed within a week. Knowing that it's not just me is kind of nice. Gives me hope I'll do the job right once I get it and that those feelings of not belonging are just in my head and not shared more widely.
A messy workshop just seems fun for a creative-type. Surrounded by a million ideas going on at once, but it's up to you to decide what you're in the mood to tinker with that day.
My favorite place in the world is my workspace, I appreciated your thoughts and feelings on how special a place it is. It doesn't look messy to me at all.
Love you Adam. Youre good people.
I used to work in a shop where the owner would wander thru. If my bench was neat and organized (the 5 min between projects), he complained to the shop manager I wasn't busy.
I lack the skill to build anything but, I do draw... or try to. So many of these Q&A's made me realize of my relationship with my "tools" and ways of doing stuff. It's funny how the creative process is pretty similar.
These videos are pure gold
This takes me back to a philosophy my late father tried to imbue upon me. Surround yourself with people who are more successful than you. Learn from their process. Don't be afraid of someone who is "better" than you at something. They have been there and done that well before you, learn from their pains & failings. Truly great people will take an eager learner along for the ride much quicker than they will a moocher.
Thoroughly enjoy your viewpoints Adam... You're clearly a bright and talented guy. I can understand completely where you're coming from when you talk about feeling like you're an imposter or that you don't belong. I went to college, but didn't finish. Majored in STEM subjects, but no degree. I've spent the last 20 odd years working closely with engineers, and the last 14 of those with a job title of "Engineer". There's not a week or departmental or project meeting that goes by, that I don't feel like I don't belong or that I don't deserve to be there due to not finishing a degree. All the experience I have, successful projects I've worked on and my own hobby activities as a model builder/designer and "engineer" do little to quell that feeling. Though as the years go by, I feel that less and less. Coming to the close of my working career (going to retire early at 58 in a year) and plan on doing a lot of "maker" projects, only then do I think I'll escape those feelings of not belonging... But then again, maybe not.
Keep doing what you're doing... I along with your other 6 million plus subscribers certainly enjoy and appreciate what you do and the wisdom and insight you provide.
I understand that fear from the first question. Started a new job in a machine shop they fired me after 2 weeks for a lack of performance despite them knowing I had no previous experience and they agreed to train me on the job.
I prefer to call it "organized chaos."
also man your workshop philosophy is pretty similar to how i like my room
it has everything i need within minimal distance from foam swords and nerf guns to food and drink to tools and plastic models and various other things just so i can keep focusing on what ever im currently doing
I'd love a breakdown of the items in different zones of reach (very commonly reached for, verses seldomly)
It looks really cool and full of fun stuff!