An Inventor's Quest for the NHL Pt. 41

Finding the Force

This series follows my attempt to develop a product that I dream of getting into the elite levels of hockey. Previously on the Quest: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, Concept Launch, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

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One month in, and I’m already behind the cadence I wanted to establish for building prototypes and filming updates this year. But as they say, time flies when your computer dies and then you catch Covid from your beer league locker room. Thankfully, I’m past both now and finished a new build log (6 minutes):

I think it turned out pretty well, though I do wish I didn’t love stop motion as much as I do, because it probably doubled my build time at least. 

That’s a tradeoff I’ll probably continue to make considering I’ve officially become a YouTube partner (make sure to watch every single ad so I get that sweet $.0007). Surprisingly, I’ve made about $50 so far from my previous “Update on the Uncage” video. 

It feels pretty rewarding, though as a weird side effect, I can’t stop repeating “I’m a YouTuber now” to the tune of “I’m a Big Kid Now”  from the end of that Huggies commercial from the 90s.

Anyways, back to the build. As you saw in the video, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t go straight back into building new prototypes. Instead, in a bit of a philosophical shift for me, I built a test rig to try to determine some of the forces acting on the cage. 

Let me expand on that philosophical shift a bit more. My core ideas are still intact. I still believe that modern engineering is hamstrung by an overreliance on simulations. I still believe that simulations are treated with too much respect – as a perfect representation of reality. And because of that, I still believe that an entire world of designs, that doesn’t simulate well, remains within my grasp.

The philosophical shift is more in how I want to explore that world of designs. Previously, I tried to develop the design by breaking things, looking at what had failed with nothing more than my eyes, and trying to correct those issues I’d seen. I think I’d gone a little too far in my desire to become anti-establishment and rejected basic and useful engineering techniques.

I still want to be experiment-forward in my approach, but less allergic to numbers. I plan to have more instrumented experiments, which help me collect data to inform future designs. Hopefully, that’ll help get this design unstuck.

Thanks as always for reading,

Surjan

PS – With updates shifting more to videos, I think these newsletter posts will focus on adding a little more color or context rather than rewriting what I’ve filmed. If you have any feedback on that plan, please let me know!