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Comment by rtpg | Hacker News Reader

For people that do these kinds of projects, I always wonder how much progress is getting made in an average night of poking around. I'm only able to make big leaps on things by just eating up evenings. Are some people just really good at picking things up and making progress?

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I don't claim to be in the same league as OP but I can tell you from my experience. I have a demanding job (CTO of Cloudflare) and I have a partner with whom I like to spend time.

One of the projects I am currently working on is restoring an IBM ThinkPad 701CS (https://blog.jgc.org/2023/03/repairing-tiny-ribbon-cable-ins...) which has required a total teardown and rebuild. I started this project in early January and currently have a working machine that's in parts. I work on this when I have time. Which might be for two or three hours a week maximum. Basically, I decided to get satisfaction from small improvements. So, one time when working on this I just cleaned up the battery contacts, another time I replaced the CMOS battery and saw that it was retaining RAM size, another time I repaired the keyboard, another time I just sat down and figured out which parts of the case I needed to 3D print to replace, etc. etc.

I usually have two to three projects ongoing and just pick them up when I have time and inclination.

This is great advice. I also try to make incremental gains in projects as it is the one way I’ve experienced consistent progress. This includes things like learning handstands as a project. A little bit of forward progress is better than no progress. I’ve heard it said it’s like putting pennies (or similar currency) into a savings account. It never seems like much but over time it adds up. The hardest thing for me was recognizing the value in those pennies. Ego, insecurity, etc want the big cathartic jump in progress.

I read that article when it was published, very cool. I was wondering, if the grafting failed could you replace the ribbon with something standard e.g. from mouser/digikey?

> I have a demanding job (CTO of Cloudflare)

Please use your influence to bring sturdy, repairable laptops with great keyboards back! I'd buy a cloudflare branded thinkpad clone.

Buy a Framework laptop?

Doesn't ship to Greece. (yet). Also the keyboard is less than ideal.

I quite like the keyboard, but then again I'm not very picky with keyboards. I got mine reshipped from Germany, so that's a route you can go.

If you want a repairable laptop with a good keyboard, getting a Framework now gets you much closer than hoping someone makes one. Also, you enable and encourage the company that already makes a repairable laptop to eventually sell a great keyboard, which giving your money to Apple or Dell doesn't do.

I will wait a bit more in case they expand their shipping.

What do you think of the monitor by the way? Does it compare to e.g. a Macbook even a little bit?

I really like the laptop in general, but, again, I'm not very picky. I have an old MacBook Air and the Framework's monitor is just as good (though much higher res). My only issue is that it's a little dim in sunlight.

Also, obviously Intel can't compare to an M1, but I hope the new AMD processors will improve on that somehow.

I work on my projects the same way. Enjoy the little wins when I get them; put it down in favor of another project for a while if I get bored.

I started work on this in 2018. It’s been five years. A few projects (side-quests) came out of this one, like m0FaultDispatch and the PIP diss play driver discussed here yesterday. On an average night, not really any progress. Long weekends and long plane rides do produce more progress.

According to the main page of the linked article, this RePalm project has been ongoing since at least Dec 30 2018. How often and how much the author works on this particular project at a time I don’t know. But from this I think it is safe to assume that it takes time, and perseverance above all is key. Probably.

Some people are better than others. If you are single with no kids that leaves a lot of time. If you have a relationship that takes time (assuming you want to maintain it), and kids are a large time sink (well worth it, but not if you count time or money). Of course different relationships have different needs. And different people have different budgets, if you are born rich maybe you don't need to work and so this isn't an evening hobby. Retired people also have more time for projects like this.

If you make it a point though most everyone can find an hour every day to do something like this despite the above. However for most of us it is easier to turn on the TV/youtube/read books/.... Even the more productive things like learn a foreign language, politically support a candidate, and the like. There is lots of competition for your limited time and most people won't make projects like this a priority. Some of the things above are worth doing on their own, some are just a waste of time. (though if you are nearly burned out you probably don't have the energy to spend on more than TV)

I'm working on a few of these kinds of projects and progress is highly variable. Some days, I might only get a few lines of code done. Hardly enough to make a difference but then other nights, in maybe the same amount time, I'll build out some massive subsystem.

I think big progress will eat up an evening but I think the important point is that it's not a job -- so when it eats up an evening it should be fun and when you've not other important/interesting things to do. I almost never know when I'm going to make progress when I start.

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