This scarf made and worn to reflect on those people in our lives unafraid to experiment. For me, someone I call Dylan. 

I watched Dylan try his hand at dozens of quirky experiments over the years. Projects that had no reason to turn into anything fruitful whatsoever, many of which maybe didn’t.

Dylan built an arcade machine once. He used old computer parts he had lying around from years prior, from a time when he was toying around with some other pointless thing. He mentioned that a lot of it he just found on eBay. It may have been the first time I realized that I too can make things, because the formula seemed suddenly so simple: go out, collect stuff, and then put them together. 

A few years later, on a whim, I decided that for whatever reason I could learn to code. So I I went out, collected pieces of code from around the internet, and then duct-taped them together. I made a few hobbled-together web-toys that did silly things like collect memories and pieces of things people were nostalgic for.

The nostalgia toy didn’t really do much, what it did do it didn’t do very well, and in the end it didn’t do any of it for very long. Same could be said of the arcade machine. But learning that it’s possible to do things you were never taught simply by going out and starting, well that’s stuck with me longer than any particular project or technical skill.

I didn’t go on to become some silicon valley CTO or anything, but I did end up using these toys to make someone I love happy, for at least one day. So I think its worthwhile. Perhaps if you too just start, you’ll end up finding a way to make your silly experiment worthwhile too.