“Afterthoughts are still thoughts. They just come after other thoughts.” – Pascal, Animal Crossing
I like Ohm’s Law, it makes sense to me. Back in 2024 a lecturer said to me that “90% of coding is just googling what to do” and that made me feel like I had wasted a lot of time. But calculating resistance feels meaningful, I feel important when I do it.
Learning about transistors made me really question what I knew about engineering. I realise that I’ve never thought about electronic parts outside of “I need this part to make this thing work”, I never questioned why I need a part to make something work. That’s what I enjoyed most when reading about transistors. I never would’ve thought that such a small device would have so much put into it, or the different ways electrons act in a PnP vs an NpN type.
I loved soldering. I first learned the basics from my grandad who also wanted to be an engineer. It felt so rewarding to see my circuit go from a breadboard to a protoboard, I kept saying to my mum “look, I made this!”.
I didn’t know what an Arduino was until this course started, and working with one for the first time is what first made me feel like I was going to be good at this. When I first saw it I actually recognised the LEDs on it, I’d worked with them before back in March when repairing a Nintendo DS Lite. Recognising that part was such a big confidence boost, like everything that was overwhelming me went away because I had proof that I can remember all this stuff.
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