Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living 0500516766, 9780500516768

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HINGS COME APART aca

Todd McLellan

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THINGS Polen

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COME MANUAL

FOR

APART MODERN

LIVING

Todd McLellan

175 color illustrations

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& Hudson

and 21,959 components

On the cover: Macintosh Computer, 1990;

Apple;component count: 928

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Pages 8—9:Flip Clock, 1970s; Sanyo;

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We All Have ADHD These Days... Todd McLellan

12

Mechanical Pencil

13

Stapler

14

Swiss Army Knife

62

64

Desk Lamp Telescope

66

Toaster

68

Blender

70

DVD Player

72

Laptop Computer

74

Typewriter

76

Printer

78

Life Lessons Learned Through Tinkering

18

Dial Combination Lock Digital Watch

19

Mechanical Watch

20

Lensatic Compass

22

Handheld GPS Unit

24

Flashlight

82

Accordion

26

Smartphone

84

Sewing Machine

28

Computer Mouse

86

Chainsaw

30

External Hard Drive

88

Snowblower

16

Gever Tulley, founder of Tinkering School

32

Handheld Games Console

go

Keyboard

33

Games Console

92

Microwave Oven

34

iPod 2

94

Espresso Machine

96

Carpet Steamer

36

Walkman Hair Straighteners

98

Push Lawnmower

37

Hair Dryer

100

Children’s Wagon

38

iPad 2 102

Taking Apart The Past

40

The Repair Revolution Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit

35

44 46 48 50

52

54 56 58 60

Penny Bendall, freelance conservator

ite

106

Record Player

110

Bicycle Upright Piano

Flip Clock

117

Two-seater Light Aircraft

Rotary Telephone Mantel Clock

122

Falling Apart: The Future

SLR Camera

Dr Joseph Chiodo, inventor of Active

Digital SLR Camera

Disassembly technology

Digital Video Camera

Video Projector Power Drill

128

Index, Component Counts, Acknowledgments

_—

. 4 t a

Todd McLellan

New objects become old objects faster than ever before.

When taking objects apart, I organize the pieces in

The waste and expense of having to replace everything

separate containers in the sequence in which they are

in your life after just a few years of use is exasperating.

removed. So, for example, when dismantling a phone, all

The new ‘teardown’ movement in technology challenges

the headset pieces stay together in one tray and the ringer

our disposable culture by exposing just what we are

pieces stay together in another. These trays are then kept

throwing away. But for me, this has been a decades-long

in order, ready for layout.

project; I have been refining the art of disassembly since

that none of the pieces is lost in the process. The thrilling

childhood. As a kid, Iwas caught in my room taking apart

part about disassembling an object myself, even before

my toys with a hammer, and in secondary school I almost

the photography, is the opportunity to understand the

completely disassembled my 1985 Hyundai Pony car.

manufacturer’s challenge. I gain a basic understanding

If an object interested me, it would soon be in pieces.

of how the item works and, in turn, a greater respect for it.

For this book, I have taken apart fifty design classics.

Iam very careful to make sure

When everything is finally separated, I begin arranging

They include brand-new modern objects and also vintage

the elements on a neutral background. Unless Iam doing

items that are no longer widely used. All of the objects

a ‘drop’ - a description of which follows - each object I

I disassembled for these photographs were in working

disassemble is laid out in the same fashion. First, I position

order or needed little care to resuscitate them. It fascinates

the main component, usually the exterior shell. After that,

me that older objects were so well built, and were most

placing the parts in a beautiful shape is a bit of a puzzle,

likely put together by hand. These items were repaired

and I repeatedly rework the layout to make each piece fit

when broken, not discarded like our devices are today.

in the space. If it takes one-and-a-half days to take an object

Older objects were created to give people service and

apart, it takes just as long, if not longer, to lay it all out

enjoyment for many years, but the new technology that

and achieve the right composition.

replaces them will itself be replaced even more rapidly.

Even the smallest objects take three days or more.

I wanted to get inside these once-treasured, now rejected

What comes in a tiny case may fill a surface 3 metres square,

objects and show the world their quality and beauty.

(32 square feet) so anticipating the size of the spread in

10

advance is very difficult. This is especially true with the latest

way), but since then I have had more success dropping the

technology. As manufactured objects have evolved, they

pieces in groups and then layering the resulting images

have become far more complex. Components are becoming

in post-production, usually in foreground, mid and

more numerous, even as they decrease in size. The full size

background sections. At first I tried light triggers to set

of the disassembly, with every single component laid out,

off the camera and flash, but now I get the best results

can be huge in relation to the original object. It is as if the

by watching the pieces fall and pressing the shutter at the

true scale of the object is revealed only when it is taken apart.

meee. moment that I see something exciting happen.

The objects in this book were photographed in two

The final object in this book, the Zenith CH 650

ways. In the first - mentioned above - I stayed faithful to

aircrait, is the largest I have photographed to date. I did

the assembly and tried to lay out the pieces in the order

not disassemble it, however; it was shot at the manufacturer’s

in which they were revealed. This creates an image that

hangar, where I could explore the aircraft and talk with

is quite precise and formal, almost like a family portrait.

the people who designed and assembled it. Piece by piece,

The camera is set up directly above, shooting downwards.

they took me through how everything worked. I came

The only lighting is one flash head, which is bounced offa

to fully understand how the plane is constantly being

large reflector above the camera. This bounced lighting leads

improved. The best part is that this is a kit plane, so

to a soit quality while providing some depth to the scene.

people can experience the assembly process on their

I think of the second method as setting the parts free.

own. It exemplifies how aircraft are almost infinitely

The pieces are placed on a platform near the ceiling, then

renewable and reusable. The shell stays the same but the

dropped. They are arranged so that, as they fall through the

programming changes. All things in life should be like this.

camera frame, their appearance conforms closely to what

Things Come Apart has been an exercise in discovery,

I had in mind. Using the newest and fastest strobe-lighting

and I’m not sure where it will end or what I will explore

technology, I am able to freeze the pieces mid-frame.

next. Thanks for coming along on the journey so far.

Originally I tried to capture all of the falling pieces in a single shot (one of the phone images was done in that

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5-38

Kyle Wiens is the co-founder and CEO of iFixit, a free online repair community renowned for its product teardowns and

open-source service manuals.

#1

The things we own are the product of great effort. Creating

his house, he had carefully placed the internal parts of

a thing requires the gathering together of a team of experts

computers on display. Separated from its plastic housing, |

from many disciplines. Over a period of years, they design

a PowerBook logic board became an intricate piece

the product, select materials, engineer innumerable

of artwork, resembling a living, breathing city viewed

solutions, assemble a global supply chain, and create

from an aircraft flying high above.

manufacturing plants. Finally, when the design is complete

Although I could not read the Japanese text that

and the constituent parts are gathered together, the product

Kodawarisan had produced to accompany his teardowns,

is assembled. Electronics, in particular, are put together by

his photographs told their own stunning story. The

an army of young, mostly female, Asian factory workers,

component parts of brand-new gadgets were showcased

whose nimble fingers fly as they insert screws, route

against a white background. Kodawarisan was able to

cables, and snap parts together. Fingers dance to a quiet

represent cumulative decades of engineering effort in

song with a rhythmic, repetitive beat. The product grows

a single photo. Complex electronics appeared simple

incrementally, piece after piece. Deliberately, methodically,

and impossibly clean. And like a pebble tossed into

many people in many different places make sure that

a still pond, his photographs of teardowns sent waves

the product comes together.

through the internet. ‘Look, here it is, they exclaimed.

The undoing of this work is known as a ‘teardown’.

The first teardown I remember seeing was in Japan.

‘The new, opened and bared for all to see.’

Since those days I have since stripped hundreds of

The artist responsible referred to himself as Kodawarisan,

devices to their naked logic boards - my organization,

or ‘The Fanatic’. A doctor working with the Red Cross,

iFixit, has built a reputation, in part, on its teardowns of new

Mitsunobu Tanaka had an uncanny knack for obtaining

devices. Yet I did not originally pick up a screwdriver with

Apple products early, taking them apart, and showing the

the intention of sharing the magic inside. Rather, I started

rest of us what made them tick. His hobby was applying the

to disassemble gadgets for the most pragmatic of reasons.

same precision he used in his medical practice to reversing

They were broken, I needed them to work, so I fixed them.

the manufacturing processes of products. When I visited

There was no great flash of insight, no stroke of genius that

40

started me on this road. Beginning to produce teardowns

universe’s way of inexorably disassembling everything

was an unexpected consequence of my quest to restore

that we have made, atom by atom.

order, to restart things that would not start, and to make

broken or failed hardware whole again.

Too often, we do not fight back. We throw things away when they break, squandering the years of work and thought and mining and manufacturing that went

into them. But this behaviour carries a penalty; if we throw our hands in the air and submit to entropy, we stagnate. We forget tha + it is solving problems that makes us human and points the way to our collective future. In his novel, The Time Machine, H. G. Wells depicts

a future in which humanity has forked into two species: the

Morlocks, troglodyte engineers who understand machines Life has always presented a series of problems for us

and can build and maintain them, and the childlike Eloi,

to solve. The way we live today in the developed world _

who have perfected

the art of lethargy, passing their days

depends on a series of solutions found long ago to the

in decadence and nights sleeping in buildings that are

most basic human problems: we have road systems to

slowly decaying around them. The book was published

get us from place to place, electricity and oil wells to supply

in 1895, at a time when steam engines were powering

our heating, piping to bring us water and carry away sewage,

industry and Karl Benz’s internal combustion engine

grocery stores for when we are hungry and hospitals for

was set to change transportation forever, and it describes

when we are ill. Now, with most of our material needs taken

a seismic societal shift that Wells was one of only a few

eare of by established infrastructure, we no longer need to

to foresee. At the end of the nineteenth century, the

invent and make things to guarantee our survival. Instead,

common citizen had no more clue as to how a steam

we must maintain the advantages we have, and the things

engine functioned than most of us have about how

we have already made. Our real battle is with entropy, the

our mobile phones work today.

Intuitively designed products do not require much,

retrace your steps looking for an alternative solution.

if any, thought to operate. They just work. The easy,

You know that there is further to go, but in which direction?

natural choice is to use things until they stop working,

Broadening your horizon, you look for additional solutions.

then toss them aside and rely on someone else to design

This is where the creativity begins. You ask yourself, ‘If Iwere designing this, how would I have held it together? The answer is there in front of you. The challenge is to step back and identify the problem to which it was the solution.

50ssibilities opens Up. g how a thing works

Ss you to adapt it..

Learning to repair is an incremental, stair-stepped

process. Flashes of insight open up great new possibilities, and the more designs you see, the more products you have examined, the better at it you become. The process

of disassembling products requires an assimilation of the a replacement. To the unquestioning and indifferent among

minds of the creators. If your computer monitor will not

us, advancing technology inevitably becomes more and

turn on, research on the internet reveals that a common

more like magic. Put clothes into the washing machine,

cause of that behaviour is a blown capacitor - a diagnosis

add soap, rinse, repeat. But who will design and maintain

that sounds like gibberish at first. But then you read further:

our world full of amazing things? What happens when the clothes stop getting clean? We must resist the urge

to lapse into Eloic laziness, with its assumption that others

will always step in and save us from the consequences of our own lack of curiosity. Fighting back against entropy is not the automatic or even the easy choice. To do so

The soul of the creator is imbued Se ee we glean vnisd om from inderstanding its workings.

requires a new approach or aspiration in life: to ‘grok’, or truly understand, the machine. Once you grok your possessions, a world of possibilities

about why computers have capacitors, and how to locate

opens up. Knowing how and why a thing works enables

a capacitor in your machine. And there is a strong empirical

you to adapt it to meet your needs. When you have grokked

element, too. You learn that a bulging top and deposits

your washing machine, fixing it when it overflows is as

of dried electrolyte on a capacitor are indications that it

simple as cleaning out a clogged drain. Once you know

has failed. When you work out how to replace the failed

what is gumming up the works, you simply need to get

capacitor, then power up the monitor and it lights up

inside and sort it.

again, you smile. For a moment, you have thought like the

Disassembly can be by rote. You remove one screw, and

engineer who designed it. You have grokked the machine.

look for the next. In a sense you become a machine yourself,

When you next take something apart, you will

proceeding methodically, allowing yourself to flow through

remember how you pried open the monitor case with

a predefined process to open up another machine. Unscrew,

guitar picks because there were no screws visible on the

unscrew, remove part. Repeat.

outside. You will remember how you had to trace cables

But then you hit a snag. A place where the next step

to their sources and pull them up straight to detach their

is not obvious. An interruption in the flow. You pause, pick

fragile connectors. And when you hit a snag again, you will

up the thing you are investigating, and look for a new angle.

push on, because you will remember the euphoric sense

Like an explorer who has reached a dead end in a cave, you

of satisfaction that comes with making something work.

AZ

Repair is the process of connecting mind and thing; you are both creator and fixer. With simple tools screwdrivers, spanners, magnetic sorting trays, pry tools

of varying thickness and hardness - fixers pick away at a device’s engineering, pulling back the curtain and opening the ‘black box’. Sometimes, the product seems to exhibit

disdain for the fixer, as if the maker is saying, ‘I glued this

When we understand the problem and craft a solution,

together because I do not want you to know my creation,

we reclaim mastery over our lives, breaking outside the

In those circumstances fixers must evolve, finding more

bubble that manufacturers have cast us into, hoping

powerful tools, such as industrial-strength heat guns and

for repeated sales. Looking closer, you will see that your

dental picks; they must even craft special screwdrivers to

refrigerator is frosting over because the heating coil has

unlock proprietary screws. But at other times a device seems

worn out. It functioned for years, but eventually the base

to be carefully designed with the fixer in mind, so that it

material failed. Replacing the broken part will cost far less

can be lovingly maintained through the years. Hand-twist

money and probably no more time than replacing the

knobs and easily opened latches invite you in, indicating a

entire refrigerator - and you will have beaten the problem

machine that is intended to journey with its owner through

instead of letting it beat you.

a lifetime. With such benevolent products, designed to

Life without conflict is a fraud. We all have to fight

be disassembled and reassembled, maintenance is as

entropy, and refusing to engage in that battle is to ignore

intuitive as their daily use. The best-designed products

what makes us human. Every time you fx something that

are robust and intended to last, rather than be dumped

entropy has broken, you claim a small victory.

prematurely in the landfill. Human and machine should wear in together, gaining experience and texture along the way.

The soul of the creator is imbued in the machine, and

Outsourcing repairs and allowing others to fight our battles by proxy is a short-term solution, but again the opportunity to test our own abilities is lost. At stake

as users we glean wisdom from understanding its workings.

is our own soul, the problem-solving core of our humanity.

To disassemble is to learn, to mend, and to move forward.

Retaking control means taking our stuff apart, seeing what

Understanding the things we own allows us to do what

makes it tick, and learning to read the minds of its creators.

we do best: solve problems.

Often, the solution is as simple as replacing a heating coil.

What happens when we do not know how things work?

Sometimes, the mend will take a great effort. Regardless,

We are cut off, trapped in a modern wasteland where we can

we must keep fixing: for the beauty of a teardown, for the

only try to solve problems with our credit cards rather than

satisfaction of a repair success, and for the sake of the

with our hands and brains. Things fail, and in a world that

basic human drive to make the world work in a better way.

no longer encourages us to seek practical solutions we toss

To live well is to press forward. Seeking out new

them aside, looking to advertisements to tell us what to buy

challenges and opportunities fulfils us and makes us into

next. To throw something away is to give up on problem

better people. Every challenge that we overcome grants us

solving, and in so doing we cast aside an important aspect

greater perspective and prepares us for the next challenge.

of that which makes us human.

The solutions we craft become a part of us, making us better

A refrigerator that ceases to operate should be viewed

as we improve the world around us.

as a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down by entropy. Saying ‘Tam not willing to solve this problem’ is not acceptable

because it forsakes our roots and endangers our future.

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Northern Electric Component count: 148

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Overleaf: Digital SLR Camera, 2012 Sony Component count: 580

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Gever Tulley, a former software engineer, is founder of Tinkering School, which runs week-long camps at which children learn how to use power tools to build, solve problems, manipulate new materials, and re-purpose old ones.

Tinkering School began around ten years ago when

have around 480 applications for those fifty spots. Parents

I realized that the formative childhood events of my

clearly have a deep desire to hand over their kids to this

generation just weren't available to children any more. First-

crazy guy in California. Kids come from all over the world.

time parents I knew would say, ‘Well, I barely survived, so

California is a very entrepreneurial environment, and

I can’t let my children go and play in the woods, or use tools

that helps. It’s a shock to me sometimes that people don't

in the garage. At a dinner one evening I said, ‘I should open

feel empowered to run with their idea and see where it goes,

a summer camp where kids can come and be kids and just

instead of carefully plotting every step and making sure that

use some tools. I ended up with six kids signed up over that

everything is going to be okay. If you just run off and make

dinner conversation and a sort of commitment to a date that

the very best version of an idea with what you have, you

summer. It was the best mistake of my life. At the time, I had

are in much better shape to figure out whether that idea

a very good job in the computer industry, I was managing

is viable or interesting or going anywhere. Don't try to

an innovation group at Adobe and really enjoyed what I was

make it perfect, just make it as good as you can.

working on, but that discussion was like a pivot in my life,

At Tinkering School we set up engaged learning

just as for other people it might have been getting married

experiences where children take on a challenge that was

or having children of their own.

clearly outside their ‘comfort zone’. We don’t handpick

Eight children were signed up by the time the summer

children who knew basic engineering, or anything like that.

camp started, and I had cleared the downstairs rooms in my

Often it is their first time holding a pocket knife or using

house and turned them into dormitories. Since then the idea

a power tool. We are on very short deadlines and giving

has grown into something much bigger, with independent

them very complex challenges. We might say, ‘Let’s

tinkering schools in Chicago, Austin, Buffalo, Baltimore,

build boats, and we’re going to put them in the ocean

Malibu and Los Angeles, and another just started in

on Wednesday and power them around.’

Bratislava, Slovakia. Every year we grow our programme

We're kind of famous for the eight- or ten-hour days

a little bit more. We started with one session per year, now

that the kids work. We break for meals, and we rush back up

we run five sessions, ten kids each, making fifty kids, and we

to the barn. The children are so much more ready and raring

78

to go than the adult collaborators working with them.

the school there is a bit of recently abandoned railway

The projects enable the children to integrate lots of

track. Checking out the materials we had, we made a special

disparate skills that they've learned in school - finally

late-afternoon shopping run to get some new wheels that

would work on a railway. By the end of the week we had these beautiful vehicles - we called them ‘railboats’ - just

simple platforms with quite big sails and a variation of sailboat rigging that the kids invented. The plan was to

drop off the ‘boats’ at one end of the railroad track and pick them up at the other, 11 miles away. Not all of the railboats made it all the way down the

track. Sometimes the way the children had mounted they have a place to apply a little bit of mathematics and

wheels didn’t work out and they came apart. The railway

art and a little bit of physics and to put them in a context

itself, previously used for transporting gravel and sand to

that makes sense. It was amazing to watch how they really

a concrete factory, was in poor shape. Despite that, one

enjoy struggling with hard problems and having successes

railboat made 5 miles, one covered just 2 miles, but one

and failures. We wonder, ‘if this is holding their attention in

made it all the way to the end. A child would be out on this

this way and they are working so hard at it, why isn’t regular

lonely railroad with three or four new friends, with a limited

school like this?’ Parts of the programme are consistently

set of materials that happened to be on the boat, trying to

successtul but not always; so then we stop to ask, ‘what

figure out how to hold on a new wheel or fix a broken brace.

exactly were we hoping for?’ We look at our failures and

One group even ended up using duct tape to make a wheel

start tweaking and trying out new ideas.

that lasted about 3 miles. I think the project will stand the

To give you an idea of what Tinkering School does,

test of time as one of Tinkering School’s greatest, just for its

I recently asked the children, ‘Do you think we could make

sheer poetic beauty. It was audacious, and an opportunity

sail-powered railcars?’ About a forty-hve-minute drive from

for the kids to think themselves out of a problem.

79

But we learn just as much from our failures. One time,

with metal at Tinkering School. We had high hopes for

we were looking in the US magazine Make: for a one-day

these things, but they just couldn’t withstand the force -

project to slip into our complicated schedule. We chose

the torque - from those drills. The kids were disappointed

a cigar-box blues guitar project, and in the morning it

that they weren't zooming around on the electric carts that

started out pretty well. The kids were really excited about

they’d built, but there was also something epic about that

the idea of everybody building their own guitar and we

kind of failure. It was a galvanizing experience for them to see the thing just come apart when you applied power. When it comes to components, we harvest parts from

all kinds of things. One of the rules at Tinkering School is that we never use anything that a child might not find in a reasonably well-stocked home garage. However, one year we were driving the kids back from a beach outing when we

spotted a pile of broken lawnmowers and lawn-maintenance equipment beside the road. We stopped and loaded all were going to have a rock’n’ roll jam session at the end

that mechanical, petrol-powered stuff into the back of the

of the day - that was a pretty motivating destination. As

ieee drove home, and started sorting it out, stealing parts

we got going we found that the kids were most engaged

from one and the other. We got two of the motors working

when they had to deviate from the magazine’s instructions.

and then the kids built a car and a motorcycle out of the

But about two-thirds of the way through, an unexpected

recovered parts and some old plastic pipe that they found

emotional detachment came into play as the kids started to

under my shed. The pipe frame of.the bike allowed it to

see differences between the guitar they were building and

twist almost forty-fve-degrees due to the way the kids had

the one in the magazine. They could see that theirs was

built the chassis. As you went around a corner, the weight

going to fall somewhere short of their expectations, and

of the motor would sort of flop over to one side and it

they were making judgmental comparisons. When we were

done, we got some musical sounds out of these things, but the kids had realized it was kind of a foregone conclusion;

there wasn’t much left to discover or to invent or innovate on their part. We concluded that such projects don’t leave

room for the child’s narrative, or the sense of discovery and ownership that you get when you've figured something out for yourself. Failure doesn’t inevitably lead to emotional detachment.

would over-steer. It was very thrilling to drive. The project may sound insane, but it was not insanely dangerous.

We once made some little electric carts, using electric hand

Tinkering School always has to assess risk and the

drills as the motors. The kids were going to drive them

parameters of safety, and kids also need to gain the

around holding the extension cord. We got some very big

skills of risk assessment and mitigation for themselves.

industrial drills intended for drilling holes in concrete but

Tinkering is changing. A typewriter may have over

they were too powerful. They tore apart the little carts. We

600 components while an iPad has only about 170 pieces,

broke chains, we broke sprockets, it was amazing, they just

although many of those are smart components. Today, kids

self-destructed. The kids had worked very hard, they had

are watching YouTube videos and are often stumbling

learned how to weld, and it was the first time we had worked

across great new ideas. One kid showed me a kind of water-

80

powered rocket that intuitively made sense but I’d never

about the physical, economic and marketing constraints

seen it before. People aren’t toiling away in their garages

that influenced his or her design decisions. The kids

in lonely silence any more; they use their phone to shoot

might notice that an early decision forced the designer

a video of their results and put them on the Internet.

to create a convoluted, weirdly shaped lever

Iam also encouraged by a new trend of parents and

to get paper-

sensor information transferred mechanically over to another

kids wanting to build things together. The digital age has

part of the printer. Then they come across an assemblage,

led to a sort of collective constipation because nobody’s

apply a battery, and get a little motor going. Reviving a

making anything physical. Suddenly people are waking

motor can be as exciting as bringing Dr Frankenstein’s

up and, while they don’t quite understand the urge just yet,

monster to life.

they need to make something. It was certainly true for me

Children are willing to explore an intellectual or

that, after years of working in the special-effects industry,

physical

putting beautiful pixels on the screen, I wanted to use

there and what’s possible. Adults carry a lot of social and

my software skills to make physical things.

emotional baggage:

The same may prove true of kids who devote themselves

landscape for no other purpose than to see what's

they are expected to be productive,

on-task, and to get things done. Parents find programmes

to Minecraft or other products that allow them to build and

like Tinkering School appealing because it is hard for them

share game environments. I think that, maybe after years

to find time to spend two days taking something apart,

of doing it, children who have lost themselves in that world

just to see what is in it. Yet the processes of disassembling

will hit a point where they realize that ‘nothing I have

something, or building something with a limited set of materials, are what lay the foundations of creativity. Parents often say to me, ‘I want to help my child learn some tinkering skills, or learn how to take things apart,

and ask, ‘where should we start?’ Well, I think we should be giving kids pocket knives again. A pocket knife is an amazing, empowering, universal tool, and with just a couple of ten- or fifteen-minute sit-downs with a child

to talk about the safety parameters, it can be an entirely made is really real’ Some of these young children have

wholesome, productive

experience

for them. They can use

come to understand very sophisticated engineering ideas

it to take something apart, whittle away at something, cut

through playing games like Minecraft, but I don’t know

a piece of paper, or prise something open. It is the ideal

whether gaming will support the desire to tinker or supplant

tool for unlocking the universe. It offers a way of gaining

it. Doubtless dozens of research papers will be coming

a little bit of mechanical competence, a little bit of hand-eye

out about this topic over the next five years.

coordination, and a way to shape the world to your ideas.

When you are tinkering with physical objects, with

a design in your head and a pile of parts in front of you, your ideas intersect with reality. The materials demand compromises but also provide new opportunities. Kids might

get something like a broken printer and take it apart until they have separated all the constituent parts. While taking it apart they are in a sense exploring another person’s ideas. It’s almost like having a conversation with the designer

81

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