Every Tool Is A Hammer

I recently finished reading Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It¹ by Adam Savage. It was an energizing read and I highly recommend this book to fellow makers² and creatives. Reading this book made me want to get back to making and I also picked up many useful tips and practices that I think will improve the processes I utilize while working on a project. This blog post is mostly a summary of the key ideas I got from the book (alonsgide some of my experiences as a maker). Whether or not you’ve read the book yet, I think this post has something for you.

Before I get into this summary, let me provide a little background on how I heard about this book. It came up when Adam was a guest on the Tim Ferris Show. Aside from watching a few episodes of Mythbusters when I was younger, I didn’t know much about Adam. When I heard him on the podcast though, I was immediately drawn to him. The podcast opened up with a discussion of Adam’s No-Face costume and Spirited Away. While I hadn’t watched this at the time, I was taken in by just how passionate Adam was about this movie and its world-building. This was just the first of many instances during the interview where I found myself being drawn into Adam’s passion (I made a note to watch Spirited Away as soon as possible!). Coupled with his passion was also a very practical, go-getter mindset. Not only did he posses creative visions but he had also acquired the skills to bring these visions to life. By the end of the podcast, the maker in me had been rekindled and I knew that I wanted to be more like Adam. A simple step in this direction was reading Every Tool is a Hammer.

The book was very easy to read and so I recommend that anyone who considers themselves a maker or would like to get into making should read it. If you’re not sure if you should consider yourself a maker, there’s a high chance you probably are (I provide Adam’s definition in the next section). If you aren’t convinced yet, read on below.

On being a maker…

Whenever we are driven to reach out and create something from nothing … we’re contributing something of ourselves to the world. We’re taking our experience and filtering it through our words or our hands or our voices, or our bodies, and we’re putting something in the culture that didn’t exist before. In fact, we’re not putting what we make into the culture, what we make IS the culture. Putting something in the world that didn’t exist before is the broadest definition of making, which means all of us can be makers. Creators.

I think that this a poetic description of what being a maker is and also a very profound one. I often find that when I get stuck into a project, it can be really easy to get bogged down by the details and only see what’s right in front of me. I don’t often stop to consider the place of the project in the larger context, let alone my position as a maker as part of the bigger picture. This paragraph by Adam reminded me of the important roles makers play. I also am comforted by how wide a definition this is. Less gatekeeping and more creating please. Moving forward, by keeping this paragraph in mind, I can stop, look up from my work, and reflect on the privilege and joy of being a maker.

On choosing projects…

When something thrills you, dig deeper. Why does it thrill you? Explore it.

If you can feel that draw, that attraction, and then something catches your interest as a result, PAY ATTENTION TO IT.

Don’t be afraid to go down the rabbit hole.

This is useful advice on figuring out how to choose projects and what to spend time on. A lot of projects I have worked on in the past were born out of some necessity but there have been projects that I worked on simply because some aspect of it intrigued me. Working on these often helped clarify why I felt drawn to it and helped me better understand myself. If you don’t have any project to work on that solves a particular problem, explore something that is tugging at you.

Adam also mentioned something similar to this when he was being interviewed by Tim:

Find something that you have to have. Find something you can’t not think about. That’s the thing to make.

It’s a bit more intense, a distillation of the earlier quote. Keeping these two pieces of advice in mind will be sure to help you choose a project.

Aside from this method of choosing projects, you can also choose projects based on the skills you want to learn. While this might sound a little backwards (since normally people develop skills to accomplish a project), I think project based learning is a great way to ensure that what you’re learning is practical and that it sticks with you. Adam mentions the following:

You can’t develop skills in a vacuum. Learn something that will help you achieve an outcome that will help you build something. Learning for the sake of learning doesn’t work very well.

See if you can find that sweet spot, where the project really tugs at you and also gives you the chance to explore and develop skills you’re interested in. Obviously, if you want to work a project because you really really want to and you can already do it with your current skillset, go for it! I’m not saying that all your projects have to have the outcome of developing your skillset. Personally I’ve found that when I do work on a project that interests me and develops my skillset, am more motivated while working on it and more satisfied afterwards.

On starting projects…

When deciding which part of the project to start with, Adam suggests beginning with the hardest part and provides a few reasons for this:

1. By getting the difficult sections done first, you won’t have a surprising big blocker right at the end.
2. Finishing difficult bits gives you more momentum compared to simpler bits and you can use this momentum to fuel further development.
3. Working from hard to easy allows you to ‘coast’ a little more easily.

I think the first point is quite straightforward so I’ll elaborate on the other two. It is vital to keep the momentum going with projects. As you progress along a project, there will be many unexpected difficulties that threaten to stifle your momentum and progress. Given this, anything you can do to keep the flow going will go a long way to counteracting the momentum killers. So when I say ‘coast’, I do not mean that the going will be easy, just that it will be easier. With all the unexpected difficulties that are sure to pop up, do what you can to mitigate the expected troubles.

On cracking on…

Once you’ve started a project, there are a few useful ideas to keep in mind. One of the things you have to come to terms with is what you thought the project would be and what it actually unfolds as. There are three quotes from Adam that I would like to draw attention to with regards to this:

Be prepared to iterate. Understand that your first build might not be satisfactory and that you’ll be trying it again. If you expect to get it in just one go, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

If you demand that the first time be perfect, or worse, punish yourself when you don’t achieve it, you’ll never be happy with what you make and making will never make you happy.

Understanding the difference between what a project should be and what it wants to be, and respecting the gulf between them is key to fulfilling one’s potential as a maker.

I think the first two go hand in hand and while it’s easy enough to grasp conceptually, it can be quite difficult to embrace in reality. There have been so many times that I have delayed releasing a project because I didn’t think it was good enough when really I should have chosen a simpler version to initially release and then built on that. There are so many projects that I have simply lost context on because I kept waiting for it to be just right before I would show it to others and in the process, I just got disappointed with my lack of progress and burnt out with the project. As a maker, making should make you happy! Start small and build gradually. I think that this in turn leads into the third quote. For when you understand the gap between what a project wants to be and what it should be, you can better stage the different iterations of the project. This understanding will take a really long time to build. It’s something I’m still working on and I will likely be working on for a long time to come. As your skills increase, so will the complexities of the projects you take on and you may find that there is always a gap between what you had initially planned and what the project ends up as. However, acknowledging that this gap exists and coming up with a plan for tackling it will put you in a better spot to engage with the project.

On the day to day…

Another reason you might want to work on simpler iterations first is because you can get quicker feedback and reshape your project as needed. The earlier iterations are also something you might be able to work on with fewer resources. When it comes to resources, I picked up two very practical pieces of advice from Adam:

If you think you need a tool, first buy the cheapest one you can find. If you find it useful, then get a proper, more expensive one.

When working on a budget, whether it’s materials, tools, margin for error - you can fill in the gap with time. Move slowly.

I have definitely been guilty of spending too much time researching what type of tools I should get or what the optimum workflow process is. While this type of research is important, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of dumping time into this and fooling yourself into thinking that you’re making progress. There’s definitely a balance to be struck but I think think that what Adam mentioned helps in finding this balance. Start of with a cheaper version that will allow you to make some headway on a simpler iteration and later you can invest in a better tool.

I think the second piece of advice is also very helpful, especially to us who don’t have the resources for the best tools, even if we have determined that they would be very useful. If you do find yourself in this situation, it’s important to acknowledge that you’ll have to spend more time on the project because you lack other resources. In this situation, be patient. Rushing a task will likely end up in a botched job and you’ll just have to redo it, costing you even more time and material resources.

When it comes to the workspace and its organization, Adam has many useful, practical tips. One that I think summarizes a few other ideas is this:

The cooking concept of ‘mise en place’ (everything in its place) should be applied to all maker aspects of your life.

Set up your space so that when you are in the zone, the space enables you to keep flowing, rather than being a hindrance. I don’t think there’s any one right way to set a space up and you may find that you try a few different iterations before you find what works best for you. When you do find it though, your workflow will be much smoother. And as the quote suggests, I don’t think the idea of ‘mise en place’ is tied just to a workspace. It’s also important to have a process for planning out projects and reviewing them. While planning is an obvious part of undertaking a project, I think that reviewing your projects is too. Set aside time for looking back at how your last few projects went. Was there any common aspect between them that could be improved? Perhaps there was an aspect with one of your projects that went particularly well and you’d like to try and incorporate it into future projects. These are just a couple of the great benefits you can get by reviewing your projects regularly. I understand that time taken to do this is time you could have spent making. But having these systems in place will ensure that the time you do spend making is spent more efficiently.

This sentence needs to be changed and better tied in to the paragraph above

These systems aren’t there to hinder you, they’re there to free you to be creative where it counts.

Another very practical tip Adam offers with regards to workspace management is this:

By cleaning up today, you provide a better start for your tomorrow self. If your tomorrow self starts off by cleaning, that steals energy that could be going towards something more creative. Momentum takes longer to build. Clean up at the end of the day.

What I have noticed is that at different times of the day, I have different levels of different types of energies. After a day at work, I often do not have a lot of energy left over for tasks that are mentally draining but I might have some physical energy left over. So it makes sense for me to schedule more creative, mentally demanding activities such as writing at the start of the day and other more physical activities, like going to the gym, later in the day. This is different from person to person but it’s important to figure out your rhythm. However, I think that regardless of your rhythm, cleaning up is a task that won’t demand much out of you. So it definitely makes sense to do this when your energy levels are low so that when you come back refreshed to the task at hand, you can immediately plug that energy into your creative work.

A very important piece of advice I have heard countless times from many different sources, including Adam, is this:

There is no skill in the world at which you get better the less sleep you have.

I understand that from time to time, you’re going to be faced with deadlines and crunch times and inevitably, sleep will be one of the first things that takes a hit. But don’t make a habit of this! Not only will your skills not improve, you also won’t be as effective in applying the skills you do have to the projects you’re working on. I find it helpful to set timers to remind me to cut work off. I used to think that if you’re in the zone, you should just keep going. However, I’ve recently been experimenting with stopping work while I’m in the zone and have been seeing some benefits from doing so. Firstly, when I’m in the zone, I often know exactly what I should be doing and what the follow up tasks should be. So when I decide to stop, I can easily make a note of these follow up tasks. When the next session starts, I have my TODO list ready to go and I can jump right back into the flow. I don’t have to waste time wondering what I should do which often easily leads to procrastination. Secondly, I find that to keep going until I’m out of the zone often means that the work at the end of that session is of a much poorer quality. I’ve pushed myself to the point of tiredness and am more likely to miss obvious solutions and make silly mistakes. For me, setting timers and cutting sessions short increases the likelihood of getting sufficient sleep and developing a sustainable workflow. I’ve found that cutting down on sleep might mean I get a little more done on day 1 at the cost of operating at a very low efficiency for multiple days afterwards. It just isn’t worth it.

On the topic of momentum…

Progressing as a maker means always pushing yourself past the momentum killers.

Train yourself to become your own momentum propaganda machine. You can’t count on external sources of motivation to be there when you’ve hit a wall with a project or you’re in the dead days half way though.

You will need to create your own motivation to keep going.

I’ve face many momentum killers and succumbed quite often. Having Adam explicitly say that one of the main responsibilities of being a maker is to push past these was helpful. It has helped me view the momentum killers more concretely as obstacles that I need to remove as opposed to burdens to bear and put up with as best as possible. Kill the momentum killers. So how do you go about generating this momentum that you need? Sometimes, the work you’re doing is enjoyable in and of itself that you’ll have enough motivation to keep going. This won’t always be the case though and when it isn’t, I find that hitting milestones provides a boost of momentum that helps me with the next part of the project. So between now and the final outcome of your project, set yourself some subgoals that you can tick off and utilize the energy from their completion for the next stage. Another source of momentum that I sometimes come across is getting recognition and praise from others. While this feels shallow to admit, knowing that others admire my work and look forward to it pushes me to produce more! Adam says the following, which makes me feel a little better:

Being vocal about your achievements is an investment in yourself.

I don’t think he means to be boastful but it is good to take pride in what you’ve done. For someone like me, being vocal increases the chances of outside recognition and hence motivation. However, even if you don’t get the response you want from others or if such outside recognition doesn’t matter much to you, I think that this simple act helps build confidence in yourself and this can translate into having an easier time pushing past momentum killers. I think that someone who is more confident in their abilities has a higher probability of seeing a project through than someone who doesn’t. So remember that whenever you hit those milestones, whenever you make progress, let others know. Your future maker self will be much better of for it.

On deadlines…

We’re all familiar with deadlines and the impending sense of dooms that grows as deadlines grows closer. Adam however presents a very different view on deadlines:

A deadline shouldn’t feel like a vise slowly crushing your head, it should feel like a sieve through which only the essential elements get pushed by the pressure of time, leaving the unnecessary bits behind.

When viewed this way, deadlines can be utilized to help you. They can ensure that the object of your creation is distilled down to its essence. In fact, Adam seems to find deadlines so useful that he goes as far as saying:

When working on a project for yourself, it’s important to set a deadline to help you get it done.

This would have been quite shocking to read before framing deadlines with his new mindset. In the past, one aspect I’ve enjoyed about personal projects was the leisurely rate at which I could attend to them. But when I took things too slow, I would get stressed about the lack of progress. In fact, I often find myself trapped in this vicious cycle when there’s no deadline:

1. Get demotivated and stressed about how slowly I’m making progress on the project.
2. My speed slows down due to the demotivation and stress.

Adam also recognizes that with personal projects, it is sometimes unclear what the deadline should be. Here is some advice he offers that I think helps with this conundrum:

When your project is starting to lag, figure out a date that is as important to you as the project, then work backwards from there.

While his advice is specifically for when the project starts to lag, I think that setting a deadline linked to an important date is a great way to start the project. One of the examples he provides is getting a costume ready in time for comic-con. Perhaps agreeing to milestone check ins with an accountability partner or showing demos to a meetup group could be a way of finding deadlines for your projects. Tying in to what I discussed earlier, these hitting these deadlines will also help generate momentum as you tick along!

Onto the next project…

I enjoy the personal and professional growth I experience from being a maker. I will never be satisfied with a static skillset. However, from time to time, I come across a project or a task within project that is very different from what I’m used to. In these cases, I often find myself overwhelmed and try to solve the problem using the skills I already have, even if they are not the most suitable. Adam has this to say on novel projects:

The terror that comes with newness can’t be your excuse for falling back into old habits or retreating to the comfort of the way you’ve always done things.

I think this is something very important to keep in mind. It’s all well and good to be comfortable with growth when it doesn’t cause any pain. Remember though that even when it does hurt, growing is a privilege and you will be better off for it. So the next time you’re up against the terror of the new, take a deep breath, collect yourself, and carry on.

There is a caveat when it comes to learning new skills and taking on projects that you’re not yet equipped for: who does the project belong to? In the book, Adam relates a very painful story about how he let someone down by attempting a project he wasn’t equipped for and not being upfront and honest about it. I think one sentence that summarizes the personal lessons he learned is this:

Being ‘better than most at casual stuff’ does not translate to being ‘good enough’ when you’re being paid to bring someone’s vision to life.

Having worked myself on projects that were slightly beyond my scope when I started, I can say that the most important thing is to lay all your cards on the table from the get go. I’ve found that others are often very gracious with the fact that you might be learning on the job but you have to be honest with them. Let them know what they can expect and you’ll be surprised by the amount of slack they might cut you. If however they aren’t comfortable with the arrangement and your expertise, then so be it. Better to part ways then and maybe work together in the future rather than ruining a professional, or worse, personal relationship.

Finally…

I hope that you’ve got something useful outta reading this blog post. It definitely isn’t a substitute for reading the book yourself. Aside from many other practical pieces of advice, Adam’s passion shines through very clearly in his writing and I guarantee that you’ll be spurred to make. Wherever you are in your maker journey, I wish you all the best and much joyous making!

1. The title is a little strange I’ll admit. Basically, it refers to two things. Firstly, when Adam was in his workshop and the hammer was too far away, nearby tools would be forced to make do. This was one of the aspects that forced Adam to reorganize his workshop. Secondly, it’s about seeing past the direct use of a tool and being able to adapt it to suit new purposes. ↩

2. For those of you who haven’t come across the term ‘maker’ before, here’s a definition I pulled from Wikipedia:

   The maker culture is a contemporary culture or subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY culture that intersects with hacker culture (which is less concerned with physical objects as it focuses on software) and revels in the creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing ones.

   However, I think that the term isn’t just related to technology but the process of creating. Be it writing, painting, composing music. If you’re making something for the joy of it, you’re a maker. ↩