Imagine you’re a young boy who worked hard all day on his sandcastle. Just as your mom calls you for dinner, a teenage jerk runs up and kicks your castle down. That feeling of loss, betrayal, and rage is only topped with the feeling that all that hard was for nothing.
This is every day. At least it’s most days. It’s the odd day that things go right the first try. To be honest, I kinda like it this way. I say that now because typing it is easy. Going back to the PCB I have to throw in the trash and start all over on is harder.
It’s a good idea for everyone involved with making and engineering to go ahead and make friends with iterating because you are going to be doing it from here on out. It is the way. There’s no way around it. You do. You fail. You repeat. In theory, it’s supposed to get easier somewhere along the line, but that’s only if you aren’t trying new things. As long as things are new, you will completely screw up on a perpetual basis.
This quick blog is my way of saying that this state of disaster is not only normal, it’s the correct path. The hard part is not beating yourself up. Yes, there are people that already goofed up whatever part of the path you are on and it’s easy to look around and think that you are the only one having problems. The truth is they probably had the same problem and they probably had the same problem more times than you did. Accept that you may have to solder up 3 boards on your needed project before you get one that works. Enjoy it.
Brandon
