Subject:
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[MindStorms FAQ 2.9 Okay, I tried to build a <such-and-such> but I couldn't. What do I do? I really
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.faq
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Date:
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Tue, 13 Jul 1999 21:51:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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2433 times
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Subject: 2.9 Okay, I tried to build a <such-and-such> but I couldn't.
What do I do? I really think I need to buy a lot more parts.
Content-Language: en
Topic-Level: 0
Revision: Robert Munafo, 1999-07-13
Location: /robotics/rcx/
Comment: Topic-level is inaccurate pending a reference for topic
levels
<p>If you couldn't build the design you had in mind because the parts
just didn't line up, or something was the wrone size or shape, or the
parts you need just don't even seem to exist, you have encountered
something that nearly every other adult fan of LEGO® (AFOL) has
encountered. This can be best referred to as the Fundamental Building
Challenge. </p>
<p>Deliberately chosing to constrain yourself to a limited set of parts
that fit together in limited ways limits your options -- but the
endless ways the parts can be combined makes you think your design,
indeed every design, should be possible. The fundamental challenge
results from the fact that, although there are endless ways to create
a given type of design, only a few of them are possible with the parts
that are available, and the method you chose to try first just doesn't
happen to be one of them. </p>
<p>Building with LEGO® can be a sort of Zen-like experience, or it can be
very frustrating depending on how you approach it. To get in the right
mindset and develop a sense of the type of creative thinking you'll need
for the experience to be enjoyable, try a micromodel challenge. </p>
<p>A micromodel challenge works like this: </p>
<p>1. Choose a small number of pieces as a "limit" (between 5 and 8 is
a good limit). </p>
<p>2. Select a familiar, irregularly shaped object that can't obviously
be made from that many pieces (like, say, a cat in sitting position). </p>
<p>3. Using a set of at least 1000 LEGO® pieces of widely assorted
shapes, spend two hours creating at least 5 different designs that
closely resemble the shape of your chosen object. Ignore color. </p>
<p>4. If you run out of ideas just start putting pieces together into
random shapes and taking them apart again, until you get some ideas
again. </p>
<p>By the end of the 2 hours you should have realized that there are many
different ways to build your object and chances are none of them are
what you first thought of when you started. It is this and other
insights from your Zen challenge that you now take back to your robot
project at hand. </p>
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