i lived 2 different basement labs at a military industrial complex research university for almost 10 years. i got to work on electro-mechanical system design. we worked with multiple $3k software packages(SolidWorks/MATLAB), we had six and seven figure hardware budgets. i got to be on the cover of wired magazine. i'd love to think i really earned it but really i just met a great photographer as the right time. anyways, it was a ton of fun but not sustainable in any way.
now i spend a lot of time thinking about evolution and the power of distributed systems. how can you prevent consolidation? how can i understand more points of view? how can i keep myself from becoming an expert, reinforcing what i "know" already? how do i extract all this expensive knowledge from my head and apply it to simple things that are easy for others to replicate? how can we make sure the new boss is different than the old boss? can you live a life without lawyers?
oh yeah, what do i make? lots of stuff. various robots, music machines, sculptures, toasters, etc... I currently really like the term, bricoleur. i would really like to take part in this shared mission of community development. It super important to be able to share the physical things the way people share digital things.