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No matter what your profession, it seems that working with the hands improves anyone's problem solving skills. Boeing and NASA are now requiring R&D personnel to have experience working with the hands, no matter how strong their academic record is.

Watch this video - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html
(20 minutes)

The research linking the hand to brain development is found in the book - The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture. By Frank R. Wilson.

Here's another article about handiwork and education (left sidebar - Why should a kid build a catapult) http://www.catapultkits.com/

In my work I regularly get feedback from teachers who say that nothing has inspired their kids to *want* to study math and physics more than the catapult project they did.

Considering the daunting issues we face as a culture, with Global Warming and the problems with fossil fuels, we need more and better problem solvers in the world than ever before.

If it was up to me, shop class would be mandatory in every high-school, and it's curriculum would be coordinated with the physics and math courses too.

Exactly. I sell educational products, and at the risk of sounding like a shameless plug, the most common complement I get from teachers and parents is "it's amazing how this catapult project has inspired my kid(s) to study math and physics". I'm not making that up, and I'm not exaggerating.

Yeah, I'm proud of my products, but secretly I can't help but wonder if it was really the kit, or the parental involvement of doing something together with the kid that lit the sparks. Whichever, at least it's something. The future is going to have some big and complicated problems. We need more things to inspire the next generation to develop the skills and the attitudes to solve those problems.

You can see these kits, if you're curious, at http://www.catapultkits.com/ and my new Leonardo DaVinci self-supporting arch bridge at http://www.bridgesandtowers.com/

After 15 years in IT, I quit (actually, not by choice. The dot-com meltdown of 2000 left me unemployed.) I couldn't find another job either, and to be honest, I didn't really want to. I wasn't happy and I was ready to move on. So, I started a toy company. You can see some of it at http://www.rlt.com/

Now that the waves of destruction from the internet big boom have subsided, would I go back to IT? No way! I'm a toymaker now and loving it. So do my kids, and we have a LOT more fun together this way that I ever could as an IT professional.

As I've said before, programmers and sysadmins have some incredible advantages over most MBAs. You have LOGIC. You are CREATIVE. You have a propensity for PROBLEM SOLVING. You can think through and visualize a plan of action from beginning to end. You can change course and re-program the system when requirements change. You know that very few, if any, projects are ever really finished. You're a hacker who knows how to shoot from the hip to get a job done on deadline, even if it isn't "elegant". You know that "Done" usually only means "it works at the moment and when it breaks, we'll fix it".

Guess what, these qualities plus a willingness to try and fail then try again (kind of like compiling) are what make entrepreneurs successful. Another advantage you have is that you won't have to hire some expensive tech guy to do your programming/sysadmin/DBA stuff for you.

You can do it. Just remember- there are a million reasons why you'll fail, and everyone will be happy to remind you of them constantly. But there's only one reason why you will succede- because you make it happen. So, ignore the naysayers and the critics, trust your instincts and go start a business.

My neighbor bought some freezers and started making block ice. He takes most of the winter off, but in the summer time he makes more money than I ever did as a programmer! Just by making ICE!

I know someone else who quit a VP position at a tech company, to print t-shirts. Raking it in, having a great time.

Yet another friend opened a restaurant- but not wanting to eat into his family time, he's only open for breakfast and lunch. He closes at 3:00 every day to pick his kids up from school. If it's your business, you can make your own rules.

I have a cousin who dropped out of school and made a fortune with a tune-up and oil change shop (actually a small chain of them - opened one at a time over several years) Now he travels and goes fishing most of the time.

Don't be scared, be bold. Love your kids, and remember- whatever you do, it will also be an education to them. They'll learn how to deal with hard times as they watch you struggle through them, and conquer them. They'll learn how to relish the good times as you reap the rewards of your efforts. Just don't forget to include them, and don't underestimate them.

Help fed my family and teach your kids some physics at the same time - http://www.catapultkits.com/

Hear hear!

I remember vividly when I was 5 years old and my parents took me out and taught me to shoot a pistol. It scared the crap out of me! But, I learned to do it and for my whole life (and of my siblings) there have been loaded guns in nightstand drawers and other places. We all knew where they were. We also knew WHAT they were.

Ok, so what. Well, when I was about 8 years old, playing (unsupervised) at a friend's house, he snuck into his parent's room and brought out a handgun for us to play with. I could tell he didn't even know how to hold it. I forget the exact details of what happened next, but I convinced him to put it away and we left the house until a grown-up came home. I'm pretty sure I averted a probable catastrophe that day - all because my parents had taught me how to shoot.

Put away your gut reactions and look at the statistics. Boats are more likely to kill your kids than handguns are. Swimming pools are MUCH more likely to kill a neighborhood kid than a loaded, unlocked handgun in the same house. You wouldn't have a pool in the backyard and not teach your kids how to swim, would you?

I forget the quote- something about freedom and limiting the freedoms of all of us based on the failings of the least of us. It's a good quote if someone can find it.

And, just in case you're wondering, I do not own any handguns or other guns. My kids DO play with toy guns (as do I, with the kids).
Why don't I own a (real) gun? Because I don't like cleaning them mostly. I'd have one if I had a friend who enjoyed target shooting, but I don't (at least not in this state).

But I do LIKE it that some of my neighbors have handguns in their houses, for the same reason that lo-jack works to reduce all the car thefts in a city. If thieves don't know which house has it, they have to assume there's a risk that any house could have it, and that's a significant deterrent. Again with the statistics, look at the violent crime rates in states with tight gun controls, vs. those with liberal gun ownership. No significant difference.

Buy a toy gun for your kids at http://www.backyardartillery.com/
Or get a catapult at http://www.catapultkits.com/
And teach them the science of ballistic motion while you're at it.
We need more people with an understanding of basic physics.

--- Help a kid become an engineer, buy them a Catapult Kit today!

I concur with this posting. Not only do I have a four year old and a two year old in the same situation, I also happen to own a toy business - http://www.rlt.com/

My observation of not only my own kids, but also of my customers, is that kids really prefer to use toys they can learn something from, without feeling like they're being taught. In other words, they want to explore and discover things on their own.

Give them a toy that only seems exciting, and they'll play with it for five minutes and put it away forever. Give them something where they can learn a skill, and they'll keep playing with it. Case in point - The Hula Hoop, legos or a frisbee vs. 99% of the colorful cheap crap on toy shelves today.

Same with Tech toys. Tech toys that amuse adults are designed to capture your attention within a few seconds, and get you to buy it. Just like a Roger Corman film. Once you've bought the ticket, what's in the box doesn't really matter. Colors, shapes and cool noises won't make a toy a good one.

Here's another example- recently, I took my kids to Utah. The skiing wasn't so hot, so we went to a place called "The Treehouse." It's a playroom for kids, crammed with all sorts of toys and adventures. We spent the whole day there, and to my surprise the most popular thing was a block toy called Kapla.

Kapla is just wooden sticks, all the same. 1/4" x 1" x 4". There were about 4000 of them in a big wheelbarrow, and a few pictures of some amazing things that people have built with them. Kids loved to try and duplicate what they saw in the pictures with the blocks. Meanwhile, in another part of the exhibit, a very friendly looking robotic grandma waited to read stories to anyone who would sit in her lap. No one did. They were all playing with the Kapla blocks. I watched a three year old girl build a tower over several attempts, until she finally made it taller than she was.

The lesson I learned was that hi-tech or not, the best toys offer kids the opportunity for discovery and achievement. Any hi-tech toy that's just tech for tech's sake gets boring pretty quickly. Old tech can be pretty cool too. One of my most popular products is a catapult - http://www.catapultkits.com/ - high tech from 800 years ago! The feedback I get from parents is that nothing has gotten their kids more excited about learning math than the catapult, and the equations for calculalting range and efficiency that come with it. "That egg only went 100 feet. How can we get it to clear the fence?!" Longer sling? More counterweight? Different release angle? -- opportunities to explore...

Bricks are cool. Lego never went away....

I recently took my kid to a place called "the treehouse" in Ogden, UT. She discovered a toy called "Kapla" It's brilliant- nothing but a wheelbarrow filled with sticks measuring 1" x 4" x 1/4" each. About 2000 of them. She made a tower over 3 feet tall, then had a blast knocking it down by throwing things at it. Tactile toys have their own appeal.

In fact, I make a living by selling kids a set of plans that can turn a brick, a stick, and some string into a machine that hurls eggs. It's called a trebuchet. There is a market for old school stuff. Just look at http://www.catapultkits.com./ Then there's the toy guns, pogo sticks and skateboards - http://www.ballistictoys.com/ - that help a kid get an intuitive feel for ballistic motion, the foundations of physics.

Here's the appeal- Kids learn real physics, not simulated physics as in a computer game. With the catapult kits, they get to do simple math to predict how far it will throw, then (and this is the part that gets them hooked) they go outside, into the field to test their work. When they see the connection between the math and the real world machine, one that hurls an egg about 200 feet, then they get excited. They see how to apply math to do something fun, outside, away from the CPU and CRT, LCD, etc.

Real toys are an important part of a kid's total education. Even if it's a piece of string, a stick and a brick.

Sorry, it's not BS.

I tried to buy one in early summer, 2000. I was told at that time (by Sawstop) that they were not available, Period. I was a ready, willing and anxious customer with only a few questions, and the treatment I recieved was positively rude.

Six years go by and a lot of things can change, but that's the truth.

In the mean time, I spent about $1000 for a damn good 5 HP 220V tablesaw from Grizzly. I use it in my business everyday and I love it. The blades I use cost $85 each.

"Retooling the manufacturing process" is BS though. It amazes me how often things are re-designed and changed. It seems like half the time when I try to buy accessories or replacement parts for something, I have to specify the year it was made, becuase the parts are not interchangeable year-to-year.

----

Don't have a tablesaw? Buy your catapult and trebuchet kit pre-cut! http://www.catapultkits.com/

I've read all these posts, and they almost exclusively focus on the music business and a little on the book business. But what about the rest of us little businesses who would not, could not exist without the Internet?

In 2000, I shocked my friends when I told them I was going to start a business selling catapult kits ( http://www.trebuchet.com/ http://www.catapultkits.com/ http://www.mangonel.com/ http://www.trebuchetplans.com/ and more). "Who needs a catapult kit?" was the reaction I got. "People do." was my response. I told them I'd sell my kits on the Internet- this was just after the big dot-com stock market meltdown. Because of that meltdown, all too many people believed that e-commerce was a doomed business and that I was a fool.

Maybe I am a fool, but I started my business with about $200 (not a typo- two hundred dollars), a digital camera and a fistfull of open source software. I spent zero dollars on marketing, zero dollars on advertising, and after a few months, I was already profitable.

Now I employ myself and some other people too. It's a very small niche market. So small, that it's actually NOT cost effective to manufacture these things in China (I tried). It's such a small niche market, that if I had to spend any money on advertising, I wouldn't survive. I tried actually- Radio, magazines, direct mail (not spam!) even a few appearances on TV. None was cost effective. Not even Google's AdSense is cost effective for my product line.

So, I live by the internet. I do no advertising other than a simple affiliate model. It's a widely distributed market, impossible to target. Thanks to the search engines, I don't have to find my market, they can find me.

Without the Internet, I wouldn't be in business. I am a cell in the long, long tail of niche businesses that simply do not make sense for a brick and mortar world, but thrive in cyberspace.

The long tail is real. My business is proof of that.

http://www.rlt.com/

Oh yeah... I was born in 1960. Really. Not only that, but my parents refused to buy me those hot wheels or any of the other cool toys that the other kids in the 'hood were toting. Did I feel bad about it? I sure did. I spent a lot of time in the backyard, developing cooler toys of my own. I built catapults to fling my dog's poop into their yards, I built flying toys that really flew, and I made huts and other structures to shade me and my work from the sun. All out of scrap lumber I scrounged from construction sites. I learned engineering and problem solving. I learned how to use my dad's tools and other hardware. And I had fun doing it too.

My other friends who had all the cool toys eventually ended up in ho-hum jobs. One is a manager of a music store, one is a truck driver, etc. Out of them all. I was the only one who became an engineer and eventually started my own business. I am by far the most successful of them all.

What's the point of all this? Imagination isn't enough, kids also need to excercise their creativity and develop the drive to complete a project. They need a goal, one with a reward. Building a machine that hurled dog poop into my neighbors yard was an incredible reward for a ten year old kid!

That's my complaint with hot-wheels. What's the goal? The real toy isn't the car, it should be the tracks and the tunnels and the other things that make the toy interesting. You only need one kind of car for that.

So, in my business I make toys that kids can learn engineering from. I make and sell the catapult projects that helped me down that path towards becoming an engineer. http://www.catapultkits.com/
The reason I do it is because these days, and in the days to come, the world needs and will increasingly need good scientists and engineers who can think creatively and be resourceful, and that starts with the toys they play with as kids.

Old tech is just as good as new tech for getting kids to learn while they play! (as long as there's really a lesson in there somewhere.)

If you can't buy a catapult kit for your kid, at least give them some rope and sticks to play with sometimes. (legal disclaimer- Just be sure to supervise them at all times too. Ropes can strangle, and sticks can be used as weapons. They can also be used to make bridges and machines to pull tree stumps out of the ground, but I'll leave that as an excersize for the reader.)

But then, it seems that PO Boxes are not allowed as addresses for certain kinds of accounts. Like Google AdSense for instance, and my Bank Account, and some utilities companies, etc... They seem to insist that I use my "home" address. "But that's not secure" I tell them. "Mail theft is illegal" they tell me. Right. Of course it is. I hadn't realized that just by it being illegal, we're all protected from theft!

So, since theft and tresspassing are illegal, I can leave my doors unlocked now and just leave the keys to my car in the ignition. If someone steals it, I can just tell the cops and my insurance company that "Of course I left it running with the keys in the ignition. Stealing is illegal!" Hey, my mail is considered "safe" in my plastic tupperware mail box out on the curb. Why not everything else?

You know, you have to have proof of an address- either on a state issued ID card, or using a utility bill with a name that matches your ID to get a PO Box. And you have to have a key (or combination) to get that box open, which sits in a lobby of a post office. A physical address? I can use any address in my neighborhood and just wait for the postman to come buy, then see what I got.

Can someone explain to me why a PO Box is not acceptable as an address? Google AdSense, are you listening? Where's my check!??

--

Have you hurled today? CatapultKits.com

I've personally been on TV as an "expert" on the shows: Junkyard Wars, Monster Garage, Modern Marvels, Mail Call, Urban Legends Revealed and In The Name of Science. I've also consulted to shows like Nova and others. Why? I'm one of the world's leading authorities on ancient catapult and trebuchet technology. It's a silly thing, but hey, it got me on TV. (and I was suprised that the MythBusters didn't call me when they did their catapulting shows. Wassup wit dat?)

Anyway, my experience has been that all TV shows- even a "science" show like Nova, are first and foremost a form of entertainment for the masses. It's astonishing how much real science and real (and interesting) educational content is disposed of in favor of dumb comedy or adversarial content in the shows I participated in. Knowing what goes on behind the camera helps one to "see" what's going on behind the camera in other shows too. And I can see it happening in MythBusters- good and interesting informative content that should be there was cast aside in favor of the cheap gag.

TV producers always seem to think that the currency of "good" television is conflict. In other words, people love to watch a good fight, or at least an argument. People also like to think that they are learning something, but hate to really learn. ("If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but, if you really make them think, they'll hate you." -- Harlan Ellison) The TV show MacGyver is an example....

In educational television, fail to entertain, and you lose the student. But it's all too easy to lose the education in favor of the entertainment too.

We live in a time when the US is falling behind, and may even lose its lead in the global science and engineering disciplines. School science programs are suffering, fewer and fewer kids in the US are studying science and engineering in colleges. We need to inspire our kids to study more science and engineering, and develop a stronger interest in these fields. This is not an issue of global competition, I view it as an issue of the US not living up to its responsibility as the wealthiest nation on earth. Shouldn't we also be capable of producing and distributing more and better scientists, engineers and technologies for the benefit of everyone?

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?" - Hillel, 1st. century BCE.

So my question is this- Is the show just another stab at entertaining the public and making a few dollars off of advertisers, or are you really interested in helping inspire people (especially kids) to think, and to learn something new, and if so, do you think you could/should be doing a better job, or are the realities of producing a popular TV show just too much of a barrier to that?

By the way, my money is where my mouth is. I gave up a lucrative career as a CIO to design and sell catapults and trebuchets to schools and students. The most common feedback I get from teachers is: "Nothing has inspired an interest in learning math and physics more than building and tuning the trebuchet!" I take credit for sending dozens of kids off to engineering schools who would otherwise not have gone that route. I'd like to reach more kids too. Any pointers on getting my own TV science show?

Oh, and get your own catapult today!
    http://www.catapultkits.com/
    http://www.trebuchet.com/
    http://www.mangonel.com/
    http://www.trebuchetplans.com/
    http://www.thehurl.org/

However, you'll have to find a hardware company that delivers, or for those without a good set of tools, you can look into kits and I'd suggest changing to heavier trash bags.

But really, in the whole scheme of things, one trip outside to make your own would save countless other trips.

My other thought was to dig a tunnel to the edge of my property, and installing an elevator there that I can lower, put the trash on, and raise back into position, but I still need something to dispose of all of the dirt that I'd accumulate.

For now, I just take out my trash in the middle of the night, when that big glowy thing isn't in the sky, trying to burn me.

sells catapult kits, etc.