Iteration #1
I bought a 3D printer late last year. It has been stuborn, to say the least. I expected it to require some calibrations and getting-used-to, but not this much work.
I'm not hating it, by any means. And it has had an unusual side-effect. See: this year's theme for me is being “Iteration”, and that is exactly what I'm having to do with the 3D prints.
Iteration is about making stuff. In short, that word describes the process of trying to make something several times, with each successive failure informing the next attempts. So, it's a fancy word for “trial-and-error”. But that's misleading. The thing is, every objective more complex than making a sandwich will require some form of learning the first time you try it (actually, probably even the sandwich). And that process can get much more sofisticated than just trying and err'ing. After all, every great and complicated project is just a really complex goal.
That's what this discussion is about: goals. That's what's at the heart of every project (in that GTD sense). No point in doing a bunch of tasks if it's not in service of some goal [1], even if just the shear pleasure of doing them. A project is just a hard-enough goal that you don't know quite how to achieve it. If you don't know how to do something, and if that's not something that's been done before, there's nothing to do but to try and fail. And learn something. And try again.
Of course, planning is an excelent idea. But the thing is: despite our best intentions, and our most ingenuous techniques, we can't think of everything. We can't aprehend the world a priori. So we must experiment. That's it:
Iteration is repeated goal-driven experimentation.
So I come back to my lowly Ender 3 3D printer, which is consistently suffering from warping of ABS prints. And I simply can't fix it. For now.
But seing as I'm stuck, I took a step back to think about *how* to approach the problem. First thing is to realize, and accept, that when obstacles come up that are more than you can deal at once, they become a project on their own. And that's simply how things go. Want to print more things? Gotta deal with the warping.
Ok. So now what? Well, in the spirit of the year's theme, I'm going to start experimenting with the printer's settings, procedures, enclosures, prayers, incantations, Stack Exchange searchs, etc. That's iteration all right. But then, I need a way to tell if I'm making progress. And, on the other hand, it would surely be good to find a way to *reduce iteration time*, so I can get on with the things I really want to do with the printer.
Gather data, and reduce iteration time.
How? Well, with a test piece, of course! And, when I had this brilliant, unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime idea, I realized that, actually, to think of it, I can use it everywhere where you want to improve the process of making something.
So this is my big insight for today: when you are stuck with something, find the test piece for that problem; something you can try, quickly, and that will tell you if you are progressing.
Find the test-piece!
Footnotes
[1]: Except for goal-less action, which nonetheless one could argue is pointless, and that's the point.