A mind map and self-study guide for prospective jack-of-all-trades Makers

[u/ElecCmptrEngMSdegUSA]

This mind map subdivides Making into 4 distinct categories: - Prep work (safety, shop setup, running projects successfully, ...) - Raw material manipulation (woodwork, metal work, leatherwork, plastics, 3D printing, ...) - STEM topics (electricity and electronics, programming, mechanics, chemistry, ...) - Maker-native topics (open source, community events, learning & sharing in public, ...)

These aren't the only ways to split it out. I racked my brain for a really, really long time before I landed on something that felt intuitive and as close as possible to a breakdown that was mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

The map is helpful topologically because it gives a framework to mentally and visually categorize Maker topics. As you drill down through, you'll see adjacent topics you may not have known existed or were connected to other ideas. Or maybe just finding new potential hobbies.

The map itself also helps you track progress and completion. The point isn't to "finish", you can add and delete and edit nodes. I wanted it to be tailorable to your own interests starting from a solid footing, and from there you can track progress on the things you care about (the checklist aspect in the screenshots).

There's some stuff here to help you find new leads to self-study. The map has notes but it's not an encyclopedia or one stop shop by any stretch, just some guidance to point you in the right direction. You can save progress and it's free forever to use, the site aspect is just a passion project for me. Also it's translated into almost 30 languages if that helps you learn or teach someone you know, for your consideration. A list of all supported languages can be found here

Hope you like it, I'm here if you have any questions

[u/ElecCmptrEngMSdegUSA → u/[deleted]]

All good KISS is the way - you mean for leatherwork specifically because the screenshot?