Leo Fernekes will host the Hack Chat on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at noon Pacific Time. (Note that this is rescheduled from the original 10/14 date -- we had a little time zone snafu. -- ed)
Time zones got you down? Here's a handy time converter!
You're sitting at your bench, surrounded by the tools of the trade -- meters and scopes, power supplies and hand tools, and a well-stocked parts bin. Your breadboard is ready, your fingers are itching to build, and you've got everything you need to get started, but -- nothing happens. Something is missing, and if you're like many of us, it's the one thing you can't get from eBay or Amazon: the creative spark that makes innovation happen.
Creativity is one of those things that's difficult to describe, and is often noticed most when it's absent. Hardware hacking requires great buckets of creativity, and it's not always possible to count on it being there exactly when it's called for. It would be great if you could somehow reduce creativity to practice and making it something as easy to source for every project as any other commodity.
While Leo Fernekes hasn't exactly commoditized creativity, judging from the breadth of projects on his YouTube channel, he's got a pretty good system for turning ideas into creations. We've featured a few of his builds on our pages, like a discrete transistor digital clock, the last continuity tester you'll ever need, and his somewhat unconventional breadboarding techniques. Leo's not afraid to fail and share the lessons learned, either.
His projects, though, aren't the whole story here: it's his process that we're going to discuss. Leo joins us for this Hack Chat to poke at the creative process and see what can be done to remain rigorous and systematic in your approach but still make the process creative and flexible. Join us with your questions about finding the inspiration you need to turn parts and skills into finished projects that really innovate.
Good morning! Thanks for braving the timezone shift to be with us today. Can you perhaps start us off with a little about your background?