Moved to https://git.beagleboard.org/jkridner/make-things-book

How to Make Things: Kid Steps to Controlling Technology

Motivation

I need a place to put down critical lessons I want to convey and some constraint on how they should be communicated. This will be an ad hoc process with no target timeframe and will start being sourced in sincerity when I can see a cohesive thread that provides a series of lessons and exercises that enable anyone to feel empowered by technology, and not subjugated by it.

As I think about it more, I feel that social media and AI will need to be included extensivly to combat technologies that are likely to have an initial adverse impact on the world. However, my starting point will be what it takes to build a real intuition about computer science with many jumping off points, but getting as quickly as possible to something that feels empowering and like it is understood well enough to freely either move forward to building on top of it or move further into the details of how it works.

Figuring out the right abstractions will be critical.

Thinking about accessibility, in terms of each financial, physical, and social barriers, need to be throughly considered throughout. A message about how mastering this information can help overcome those barriers should be repeated. Control, as used in the title, is about accesibility, accountability, empowerment, ownership, and more.

One of the most empowering concepts to share is that you need not individual control over technology in your life alone. There are various communities of people who, given the right abstractions and communication, will help you solve all sorts of aspects of your challenges. The goal of this book has to be to create a community of life-long learners looking to bring people into the world of defining the future of technology.

Audience

Using the phrase "kid steps" is intentional to imply this is for children, but this is also intended for anyone looking for a step-by-step guide to what concepts to master to control technology in their lives.

Inspiration Books

• Getting Started with TRS-80 Basic
• Bad to the Bone: Crafting Electronics Systems with BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black
• BeagleBone Cookbook
• Exploring BeagleBone: Tools and Techniques for Building with Embedded Linux
• Getting Started in Electronics
• People Powered by Jono Bacon
• Zero to Maker: Learn (Just Enough) to Make (Just About) Anything
• The Crafty Kids Guide to DIY Electronics: 20 Fun Projects for Makers, Crafters, and Everyone in Between
• Here Comes Everybody
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary
• Peer-To-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies
• How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
• Tools for Thought
• Solve for Happy

Inspiration Tech

• OLPC
• Jupyter notebooks (with Julia)
• Blocky Talky
• https://www.thewandcompany.com/blog/

Outline

I'll need to spend some time working out the right content, but there should be multiple running threads of interest that come together in the projects. As I'm thinking this out, I'm realizing these elements can be somewhat written separately, as if following this outline, but need to be presented in parallel. Multiple readings of the book can help fill in the details missed, as the primary goal is to make things understandable and interesting, rather than rigorus. Cute boxes that indicate the theme can be used to carry forward a line of thought, interjecting them where they apply to the projects.

• Forward - my history and story
• Definitions key schools of thought
• History of applied schools of thought mathematics, mechanics, and computer science
• Projects to reproduce revolutions in science and deliver empowerment
• Applications of key concepts of defined schools of thought

Content

• Build something with right angles
• Parallel and series circuits - perhaps building a game to test your understanding
• Build a robot (right angles, motors)
• Build a weather station (sensing)
• Build a musical instrument (amplification?)

Style

• Jumping around should be OK
• Content should build with all required skills covered in previous chapters
• Friendly character like in the TRS-80 book and on-page note areas with assignments

Hardware

• BeagleBoard.org BeagleConnect Freedom
• BeagleBoard.org BeagleBone Blue
• Wio Terminal
• Chromebook

Kits

There should be a collection of kits useful for various book sections

Random notes

• Symantic web
• Leaky abstractions and Blocky Talky
• Unified operator