The Power of Personal Projects
I’ve spent the better part of my career designing and refining complex systems—power grids, embedded firmware, control architectures, and everything in between. The stakes are high, the teams are large, and the deliverables are tightly scheduled. I love this work. But over the years, I’ve learned something important: if I want to stay inspired, I need to build just for the joy of building.
That’s where my home lab comes in.
Tucked into a corner of my workshop, surrounded by bins of components and half-disassembled devices, is where I reconnect with the why behind my career. No clients, no deadlines, no spec sheets. Just open circuits, a soldering iron, and the thrill of asking, “What if…?”
Tinkering keeps my engineering spark alive. It reminds me that before I became a professional problem solver, I was a curious kid who loved taking things apart and figuring out how they worked. And honestly? I still am.
A Sandbox for Ideas
In the home lab, failure doesn’t cost the company money. It doesn’t delay a product launch. It’s not written up in a report. That freedom creates room to explore—to try wild ideas, to debug slowly, to make things that serve no commercial purpose but ignite real learning.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with everything from home automation systems built on Raspberry Pi, to rebuilding vintage analog radios, to prototyping energy monitoring solutions with ESP32 boards and custom firmware. I’ve 3D printed enclosures, written my own communication protocols, and accidentally let the magic smoke out of more than one transistor.
Each project teaches me something. Sometimes it’s a technical insight, like discovering a more efficient way to debounce switches in code. Sometimes it’s a design principle, like realizing how even the smallest mechanical details affect user experience. And sometimes it’s just the quiet pleasure of seeing an idea come to life in your hands.
Why Curiosity Still Matters
Professional engineering can be intense. The pressure to deliver, the rigor of peer reviews, the endless stack of requirements—it’s easy to become reactive instead of creative. That’s why I think every engineer, no matter how senior or specialized, should have a space to play.
Tinkering restores curiosity. It removes the guardrails and brings back the childlike question that fuels innovation: What happens if I do this? And in a world where technology changes faster than ever, that curiosity is more than just a luxury—it’s a survival skill.
When I explore new microcontrollers, test open-source libraries, or play with circuit designs I’ve never used before, I’m not just filling a weekend. I’m future-proofing my thinking. I’m staying nimble. And I’m making sure I don’t lose touch with the hands-on mindset that first brought me into this field.
Open Source, Open Mind
One of the most exciting parts of tinkering today is the incredible open-source community that surrounds it. Whether it’s GitHub repositories, online forums, YouTube tutorials, or collaborative hardware projects, we live in an age where almost any idea can be prototyped with help from people around the world.
Some of my favorite side projects have been built on top of others’ work: adapting open-source energy monitors, contributing to firmware projects, or just swapping ideas with fellow hobbyists online. It’s a reminder that engineering is not a solitary craft—it’s a shared language.
And it works both ways. When I find a workaround, a better schematic, or a script that simplifies a complex task, I try to give back. That act of sharing is part of the joy. It’s not about intellectual property or patents—it’s about learning in public and celebrating ingenuity.
Low Pressure, High Reward
The irony is that some of the most useful insights I’ve brought back to my professional work didn’t come from formal training or corporate projects. They came from weekend experiments.
I’ve applied lessons from open-source libraries to improve embedded interfaces at work. I’ve borrowed tricks from hobby robotics to optimize PID tuning in industrial motors. I’ve even repurposed a personal home automation setup to solve real-world sensor problems in a factory setting.
That’s the beauty of tinkering—it creates a low-pressure space where big ideas can grow.
Keeping the Flame Lit
Tinkering isn’t about building the next big thing. It’s about keeping the creative engine running when the professional side of engineering threatens to become routine. It’s about finding joy in exploration, in trial and error, in small wins that no one else may ever see.
In a world of agile sprints, KPIs, and stacked product roadmaps, we need those private projects. They keep our skills sharp, our curiosity engaged, and our passion alive.
So if you’re an engineer, no matter how experienced, I encourage you to make space for your own home lab—whether it’s a corner of your desk, a shelf in your garage, or a digital sandbox on your laptop. Build something weird. Break something old. Write messy code. Learn.
Because in the sparks of those little side projects, we often find our greatest ideas—and our deepest connection to why we became engineers in the first place.