Persistence!

As a full-time employee of a large tech corporation, I do not have a lot of free time. I was very frustrated today when I sat down to my Gamer Physical Feedback project and realized that there has not been any tangible progress for a few weeks. In order to turn the system that I have into a consumer level apparatus I need to swap out the micro-controller development board that is currently acting as its brain with a PIC, and making that transition is taking quite some time.

It would be very easy for me to see the lack of tangible progress and say to myself, "Oh, maybe I should just play computer games instead of messing with this." Sometimes I do, of course. I love video games. That's why I think this project is so cool. Other times I sit down with my work and do what I need to do.

Thinking about persistence reminds me of Thomas Edison. For all of the jerk moves he made, he did have at least one admirable quality: he was tenacious when he had a problem to solve. When going about designing the light bulb, for instance, legend has it that he had to try hundreds of different filaments. When asked about it he said something to the effect of "I have not failed hundreds of times, I have just found hundreds of ways not to make a light bulb." I suspect this tenacity is a common trait among all inventors. I may not have tangible progress, but every hour I spend is an hour of progress nonetheless. I will continue to push forward :-)