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Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

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Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#91
post #68

Looks cool, but if you want people to judge your project on its merit, then don't post information about your age; it will make honest feedback difficult both for you and the sender. PS: anyone who can keep their focus on a project for more than a few weeks and complete it can become a fine engineer so don't worry about that.

It's cool that OP is enthused by engineering, it's a cool little thing they made, and it's great that the next generation of mechanical engineers are starting out seeing software as a tool in their armoury. Those are the merits I can see here, and in my judgement they're all awesome.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going through this. It's demoralizing. I want to spend weeks coding something cool. The idea of asking an AI to do it in 30 minutes is like... what's even the point. I know I can, so why bother. I'd rather go get a beer. It's like getting all the cheat codes and then the game isn't fun anymore.

Be more ambitious, there are projects that take months even with frontier agents

Exactly. Or you can go physical and do some HW+SW project, there is no AI (yet) for the physical world, at least at a price point for hobbyists. Although you can already go a long way 3D-printing

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#93
post #79
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agree. Do you engineer software? Congrats, you're officially a software engineer :) Start doing it for money, and you're officially a professional software engineer. Make software that genuinely improves peoples lives (like the Linux kernel currently running the computer I'm typing these words on), and you can call yourself a good software engineer ^_^

There are places (eg Canada) where engineer is a protected title like lawyer or doctor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_en...

Yes but not a single software engineer or other engineer in my field has a professional engineer designation. It's not required to practice in most fields outside of civil/structural engineering.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#94
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are places (eg Canada) where engineer is a protected title like lawyer or doctor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_en...

Yes but not a single software engineer or other engineer in my field has a professional engineer designation. It's not required to practice in most fields outside of civil/structural engineering.

The main qualification of one of the best electronics engineers I knew (UK) was Bachelor of Music.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#95
post #34

Don’t listen to people telling you not to post your age on the internet. This is solid work and you did this instead of being stuck in one of the hundreds of +1 dopamine traps in Roblox or yelling at other (often times much younger) kids in Fortnite like many of your peers did. You did something meaningful, you even waited to share it with the world until version three, and you learned a ton doing it. Well done, dude…

There’s no need to put down others to raise up OP. We can praise merit in one pursuit without acting like we are objectively better than others for it. How folks choose to spend their time is a fundamental part of personal freedom.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#96
post #5

try making something without AI too, it will be valuable

AI will be required to maintain the piles of tech crap we've built and that society now stands on. New generations are no longer as tech savvy, pushed toward being simple users and consumers. The rare individuals that develop curiosity for how things work have their work cutout and will need all the tools they can get to dig their way through layers of undocumented, organically grown software and hardware cruft left…

Where do you think AI got its training material? Was it not from those very same "engineers of lore" and their respective "tech crap"?

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but not a single software engineer or other engineer in my field has a professional engineer designation. It's not required to practice in most fields outside of civil/structural engineering.

The main qualification of one of the best electronics engineers I knew (UK) was Bachelor of Music.

Most of us in electronics in the 1970s in the UK had physics degrees I think. And when I moved sideways into software much later the physics background was eminently useful when modelling machinery and physical processes.

But I too have met engineers with music and also medical backgrounds. But that's all more than half a century ago, it seems that employers expect much more narrowly focussed qualifications these days.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

#98
Impressive work for someone of any age!

- any project that involves hardware or physical objects (especially ones you are manufacturing!) is impressive

- the craftsmanship

- references to established standards

- documentation

- actually publishing

As others have said here you can drop the “wannabe” tag (or don’t, we’re all wannabes at heart :))

Nice job and keep up the good work!

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