Chapter 9 - ‘The Rest’ #

Music #

Music? In a chapter on Engineering? Well, yeah. Hear me out, music is a combination of math and signals.

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EUCLID(m, k):
	if k = 0:
		return m
	else:
    	return EUCLID(k,m mod k)

As a really cool example, there’s also ORCΛ by 100 rabbits, which you can see in action in this video from EZBOT on YouTube:

If you get into Modular music systems, like eurorack, it’s really similar to programming too- as you connect modules as if they’re functions and operations- to make a complex musical system. Here’s an example of a Eurorack setup in action from Lightbath on YouTube:

Health #

I’m going to keep this exceptionally brief, but to be a good hacker/engineer/maker/whatever-you-want-to-be you need to be capable (physically able) and motivated (mentally able) and you should aim to make both as good as you can.

Mental #

• Don’t become a total work-a-holic

• Keep friendships

• Have hobies that aren’t engineering-y

  • And don’t force them all of them to be engineering-y. If you spend more time getting it to work in Linux than actually enjoying it, Linux is your hobby. Get a hobby that’s not Linux.

Physical #

• Limit caffine intake

• Brush yo’ fuckin’ teath

• Actually walk around a park and get fresh air

  (Touch grass)

Character owned by Vega, art by Talon Creations

World Studies #

[TODO] To help with tolerance and looking at things from new perspectives.

History #

[TODO] inspiration from history and remembering past mistakes

Art, Design, UI & UX #

I know what you’re thinking, “Vega, this guide is about engineering- why should I give a damn about art?”

Because you’ll still probably need to design enclosures, make easy to read documentation, and probably make a user interface or two, and bad design usually leads to both users not being interested in the first place and a poor user experience.

So, even if you’re not super into it, give the Design Chapters a quick skim and look at the parts that seem relevant to you, you’ll want to look at Section 4 - UI/UX for sure.

If you’d like a good laugh, check out this video from Tantacrul roasting the poor design of Sibelius, a popular program for music notation